Math 103 is a popular course taken by many undergraduates not majoring in the mathematical, physical, or life sciences, to satisfy a quantitative course requirement for graduation. It is intended to cohere well with students' liberal arts and social science interests, by investigating applications of mathematics, much of it developed only relatively recently, in contexts which are relevant to individuals who do not necessarily have strong interests in the sciences. These topics include the mathematics of voting (when there are 3 or more candidates in an election, how do you decide who should win, and how can we define suitable notions of "fair" and "unfair" outcomes?), weighted voting systems (how much power does each party really have in a parliamentary system, or each nation on the UN Security council, or each state in the US electoral college?), the mathematics of apportionment (how many congressional seats is each state entitled to, and what mathematical difficulties can result from apportioning them?), fair division of goods (how can co-owners of a store location but with different retail businesses divide the year fairly? if siblings inherit an estate, what is a fair way to divide it?), financial mathematics and exponential growth (if you invest $100 every month at a certain interest rate, how much will be there in 30 years?), Euler circuits (what is an efficient way to drive over every road in your town, e.g. if you're plowing out the roads after a snowstorm?), the Traveling Salesman Problem (given a table of airfares, how do you find the cheapest itinerary if you must visit 10 cities in some order?), and the mathematics of networks (to build the cheapest possible high speed rail system linking a certain group of cities, which pairs of cities should have direct links built between them?). You will not be left wondering, "what does this have to do with real life?" The course is also intended to reinforce underlying mathematical skills. During the spring semester there will be an honors version of Math 103 which deals with the mathematics and public policy issues related to cryptography. This Web page deals only with the non-honors version of the course.

SAS Core Curriculum Learning Goals

Math 103 fulfills both the Quantitative Information (QQ) and Mathematical or Formal Reasoning (QR) learning goals of the SAS Core Curriculum:
QQ: Formulate, evaluate, and communicate conclusions and inferences from quantitative information.
QR: Apply effective and efficient mathematical or other formal processes to reason and to solve problems.

General syllabus

Revised Spring 2012

Please note that ultimate authority rests with the individual instructor. The syllabus distributed in class and/or posted on the Sakai site for an individual section takes precedence over the one posted on this web site.

Summer 2012 Schedule

Instructor	Index	Section	Day(s)/ Period	Time	Room (click for map)	Campus	Session	Dates
Marvin, Mary	82985	B1	MTWH	8:00A-9:55	SEC-208	BUS	1	5/29-7/06
Lieberman, Melissa	82986	B6	MWF	6:00P-8:45	SEC-210	BUS	1	5/29-7/06
Lew, Kristen	80353	E1	MTWH	8:00A-9:50	SEC-207	BUS	2	6/25-8/02
Nemzer, Dan	82685	HI	MTWH	8:00A-9:50	SEC-208	BUS	3	7/09-8/15
Goldring, Marc	82588	H6	MWH	6:00P-8:35	CI-203	CAC	3	7/09-8/15

Note to current MATH 103 students: Homework solutions and supplemental problems are now posted on the course site on Sakai.

See also:

• 103-H
• Archive of previous semesters

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