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The Honors aspect of the Mathematics 1585H and 2686H sequence has to do with the amount of material covered in the time period assigned. In Honors Calculus we cover in one year and 10 semester hours what would normally be covered in one and one half years and 12 semester hours. This, of course, means that the material needs to be covered 20% faster than normal. This is accomplished in two ways. First, we assume that the mathematical background of a student in the Honors sequence is better than in that of a student in the standard sequence. Second, the mathematical ability of the students in the Honors sequence should be such that we can move at a slightly more rapid pace.
We have run the Honors sequence successfully for a number of years, and this will be the eighth year under my instruction. There has been a very high success rate in the sequence, with a grade point average of approximately 3.5. We occasionally find that a student is misplaced into the Honors sequence, but when this occurs we simply permit the student to transfer to the appropriate course in the standard calculus sequence, Mathematics 1571, 1572, and 2673. The grading standard for the Honors sequence is the same as that of the standard calculus sequence.
The book used for the course will be Faires and Faires Calculus, Second Edition. This book is available to YSU students (only) free of charge in PDF format at the web site
You may download the material from this site and print it, if you like, but you may not use the Mathematics Computer Laboratory to do the printing. Attempting to do so violates the honesty policy for this course.
Alternatively, you can likely purchase the book in hard copy form quite reasonably by searching the Web. Look for the ISBN numbers 0-394-38627-2 or 0-07019903-5. I have found that places like Direct Textbook give good sources at cheap prices (often less that $10).
The PDF file Mathematics 2686H contains the grading policy, syllabus, and homework assignments for the course. The material in the first four sections of the book should be covered before the course begins since this is Precalculus material that will be essentially assumed to be known. I want to emphasize the word essentially in this last sentence. I will be going over this material quickly in class, primarily to be sure that we are on the same page with regard to notation and definitions. I want you to ask questions about anything you don't fully understand, but we cannot spend much time on this material if we are to cover the required material in a timely fashion.
We will be using the Computer Algebra System called Maple as we move through the Calculus sequence. On certain days we will meet in the Mathematics Computer Laboratory located in Cushwa 1062.
Note that the Mathematics Computer Laboratory located in Cushwa 1062 is available only for students taking mathematics courses that require computer work, and only when those students are working on approved mathematical projects. If you want to use this lab for any reason other than the assignments in this class you must have my explicit permission. Any deviation will be assumed to be a violation of the honesty policy for the course.
Here is the writeup on Curvature that I distributed in class on Monday 23 February 2009.