Holy Cross Mathematics and Computer Science
MONT 107N -- Understanding Randomness
Syllabus and Schedule
-
Course syllabus (.pdf)
- Detailed course
schedule, revised February 15 --Also note: This schedule pertains only to our section's class meetings.
Upcoming Natural World Cluster Common Events
- Concert/Demonstration by Profs. Carol Lieberman and Mark Kroll, Thursday, February 18th at 7:30 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. Carol and Mark will play period instruments (Baroque violin/ modern violin and harpsichord/concert piano) to illustrate the difference between the way classical pieces were composed and (presumably) designed to be heard versus how we hear them now.
- Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture conference on Biological Bases of Morality,
Thursday and Friday, March 18 and 19, and follow-up discussion in April. More details to follow.
Examples, Class Notes, Etc.
- Some study and discussion questions on The Drunkard's Walk
- You may also find it interesting to look at a video of a
lecture (then search for talk on The Drunkard's Walk)
that Mlodinow gave at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada in May 2009.
- Discussion of Bayes' Rule, class on January 27.
- Probability histogram example, class on February 5.
- Maple code for lab day on February 8.
- From our discussion of authenticity, choice, and chance in music on February 15:
- Mahler's Symphony no. 5, Adagietto movement, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by
Christoph Eschenbach: first part and
second part (there are many
other performances of this music on YouTube as well -- all very different,
due to the interpretive choices and chance things that happen when music is played live.)
- Mozart's "Musical Dice Game"
- Maple code for lab day on February 26.
- Some study and discussion questions on Primates and Philosophers
- An interesting statistical ``take'' on Toyota's recent safety recall problems
- Selected solutions for Problem Set 3.
- Solutions for Midterm Exam.
- ``Student's'' t-curves, class on March 29.
- Normal and Chi-Square curves, class on April 14.
- Selected solutions for Problem Set 4.
- Selected solutions for Problem Set 5.
- Solutions for Final Exam.
Assignments
- Discussion 1 -- writeups due
in class on Monday, January 25.
- Problem Set 1 -- from FPP:
- Review Problems from Chapter 16/1,2,6,7,8;
- Review Problems from Chapter 17/1,3,4,7,8,10.
due: Friday, February 5.
- Lab Day 1 -- writeups due in
class no later than Friday, February 12.
- Problem Set 2 -- from FPP:
- Review Problems from Chapter 18/2,4 (also give an exact value),6,7,8,15;
- Review Problems from Chapter 19/3,4,11.
due: Monday, February 15 -- note change.
- First paper assignment -- papers are
due by email on Friday, February 26.
- Discussion 2 -- from class on February 22.
- Lab Day 2 -- we will try to
finish this by the end of the class on Friday, February 26
- Final Projects
- Problem Set 3 -- from FPP:
- Review Problems from Chapter 20/1,3,5,6;
- Review Problems from Chapter 21/2,5,6,8,9,13.
due: Friday, March 12.
- Discussion 3 -- from class on March 24 and 26.
- Problem Set 4 -- from FPP:
- Review Problems from Chapter 26/1,3,6,8,9;
- Review Problems from Chapter 27/2,3,4,5,7.
- Additional problem: Do Review Problem 4 from Chapter 26, but
assuming that the section meetings have only 15 rather than 30 students.
Use an appropriate t-test.
due: Friday, April 9.
- Discussion 4 -- from class on April 14.
- Problem Set 5 -- from FPP -- this has been converted into an Extra Credit
assignment:
- Review Problems from Chapter 28/1,3,4,8,9;
- Review Problems from Chapter 25/1,2,3,4,5.
due: Friday, April 23 (you can have a few extra days if you need them).
Information and Announcements
- Final Project Presentations -- April 26, 28, 30, and May 3.
- Final Exam for this class will be given on Tuesday, May 11 starting at 8:30am
in Stein 307. Review sheet,
practice problems, and solutions
for the practice problems.
- Review Session for Final: 2:30pm on Friday, May 7 in Stein 307.
Related Links
Academic Support for Students at Holy Cross
Downloading Information
The links for assignments and other handouts shown above with the notation
(.pdf file) lead to documents in PDF format. To read and print these, you
will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. This
is available at no cost from Adobe.
To
my personal homepage
To the Math/CS homepage
To the Holy Cross homepage
Last modified: May 11, 2010