I am emailing a link of this to everyone on the class list every week. If you are not receiving these emails or want to have them sent to another email address feel free to email me at jpmccarthymaths@gmail.com and I will add you to the mailing list.
Attendance
Frankly, as a group our attendance is abysmal. Not coming to tutorials and regularly missing lectures only means one thing: failure. Attending everything does not guarantee success but it is certainly necessary. You will not be getting much sympathy from me if you fail the test miserably having not attended class properly.
Test 1
The first 15% test will take place at 9 am FRIDAY 18 October in PF45 (Week 5). You can find a sample in the course notes, after the section on rates of change I think. It is a test that could arguably take 42 minutes but I’ll give ye from 9.05 — 10 am. You will be given a copy of these tables. Don’t worry I’ll scribble out the “UCC”!
Note that the format will be the same of this.
- Differentiation from First Principles
- Tangent Lines
- Differentiate by Rule
- Differentiate by Rule
- Differentiate by Rule
- Rates of Change
- Rate of Change/ Geometry of Graph
Course Notes
The notes contain all the lecture material, all the exercises and exercise sheets as well as all of last year’s assessments and you will need them from Monday on. They cost €12 and are on sale in the copying centre. Also find a useful reference here.
Week 4
In Week 4 we worked on the Chain Rule and spoke applications of differentiation to rates of change. Finally we started talking about the duality between algebra & geometry.
Week 5
In Week 5 we will continue our work on the interplay between geometry & algebra and learn how to find the maxima/minima of functions.
Tutorials
Regarding the tutorial time split:
BioEng:
– If you are finished early on Tuesday your tutorial is Friday at 09:00 in PF45.
– If you are ‘finished’ at 16:30 on Tuesday your tutorial is Thursday at 17:00 in PF45
Building Services:
– You can come to the Friday 09:00 tutorial as well as/instead of the Tuesday 17:00 if you wish to do so.
Study
Please feel free to ask me questions about the exercises via email or even better on this webpage — especially those of us who struggled in the test.
Academic Learning Centre
I would urge anyone having any problems with material that isn’t being addressed in the tutorials to use the Academic Learning Centre. As you can see the timetable is quite generous. You will get best results if you come to the helpers there with specific questions. You could also win a tablet device if you enter a competition that they are running.
Maple & Wolfram Alpha
If you are subscribed to CIT MathsOnline you will have free access to the mathematical software package Maple:
Self-enrolment for Maths Online
1. Log into Blackboard Learn
2. Click on the Courses tab button at the top of the screen. Go to Course Search and type Maths Online in the box.
3. Once you’ve found the course, click on the action link button next to the course and click on Enrol. This should take you to the Self Enrolment page.
4. Your Access Code is mathsonline (lower case, no spaces).
5. After you’ve finished click Submit. You should now see a message that says your enrolment was successful.
Once you’ve enrolled, you can download Maple by selecting the Mathematical Software tab in the left hand column and following the instructions under the Maple item.
I myself am not a Maple expert but ‘grew up’ with another mathematical software package Mathematica. Mathematica powers the “computational knowledge engine” WolframAlpha. Go on ask it a question!
Math.Stack Exchange
If you find yourself stuck and for some reason feel unable to ask me the question you could do worse than go to the excellent site math.stackexchange.com. If you are nice and polite, and show due deference to these principles you will find that your questions are answered promptly. For example this question discussing whether increasing implies first derivative positive all the time.
Calculators
Please note the following taken from the CIT code of conduct for CIT examination candidates:
“Where a pocket calculator is used it must be silent, self-powered and non-programmable.
It may not be passed from one candidate to another. Instructions for its use may not be
brought into the Examination Hall.
The term ‘programmable’ includes any calculator that is capable of storing a sequence of
keystrokes that can be retrieved after the calculator is turned off or powers itself off. Note that the
capacity to recall, edit and replay previously executed calculations does not render a calculator
programmable, provided that this replay memory is automatically cleared when the calculator is
powered off. Also, the facility to store numbers in one or more memory locations does not render
a calculator programmable.
Calculators with any of the following mathematical features are prohibited:
• Graph plotting
• Equation solving
• Symbolic algebraic manipulation
• Numerical integration
• Numerical differentiation
• Matrix calculations
Calculators with any of the following features are prohibited
• Data Banks
• Dictionaries
• Language translators
• Text retrieval
• Capability of remote communication“
where 
is the number of days missed. In other words: missing seven lectures and tutorials means that your score is nearly 30 percentage points lower than what it would have been had you had perfect attendance.
and the sample standard deviation, which is supposed to approximate it.
using the quotient rule and 
using the Chain Rule.
J.P. McCarthy: Math Page 
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