Math 194, Autumn 2005

Karl Rubin



Announcements

Here are the problems and solutions from the 2005 Putnam exam.

Putnam Exam: The Putnam exam will be held in Rowland Hall room 114 (not in the usual classroom) on Saturday December 3, 2005, 8-11 am and 1-4 pm. Please arrive at 7:50 to take care of paperwork.

No papers, books, or calcualtors of any kind are allowed. Paper will be provided, bring pencils or pens.


Tuesday Dec. 6 at 7pm in MSTB 114: instead of a final exam, there will be a meeting for anybody who is interested, to go over the Putnam exam problems. Attendance is optional. Refreshments (non-pizza) will be provided.


Winter quarter honors seminar: Professor Matt Foreman will be teaching an Honors Seminar/independent study course in the winter quarter. If you have enjoyed Math 194, you should also consider taking this seminar. Here is more information.

Important dates:

Putnam exam: Saturday December 3, 2005, 8-11 am and 1-4 pm

You can take the Putnam Exam even if you don't take Math 194, but you must sign up by October 7. To sign up, send me an e-mail at krubin@uci.edu. All signups will be acknowledged. Because of the early deadline, you should sign up if there's any chance at all you'll want to take the exam.


Structure:

The seminar meets Tuesdays 7:00-8:20 pm in MSTB 114. Each week there will be a short lecture, followed by presentations of solutions and some time to work on new problems. Pizza will be provided!

Everyone is welcome, whether or not you are enrolled for credit. If you like solving problems it should be fun. If you want to take the Putnam exam (and who wouldn't?) this will be good practice.


Grading:

The grading is pass/not pass only. To pass, attendance, participation in class, and taking the Putnam Exam are required.


Text:

Problem solving through problems, by Loren Larson.


General information about the Putnam exam:

Official site
Harvey Mudd Putnam page
Archive of problems and solutions


Syllabus (tentative)

You will need the password given in class (or get it from me) to download the weekly problem sets.

For hints, come to office hours.

date Chapter from Larson problems to do for next week
Sept. 27 1 problem set #1
Oct. 4 2 problem set #2
Oct. 11 3 problem set #3
Oct. 18 4 problem set #4
Oct. 25 5 problem set #5
Nov. 1 6 problem set #6
Nov. 8 7 problem set #7
Nov. 15 8 problem set #8
Nov. 22 1995 Putnam exam, solutions
Nov. 29