INTRODUCTION

Calculus studies properties of functions and their applications. In our everyday life and in our work in business, social sciences or engineering, we often meet with problems of rates of changes (growth or decay), or with problems of optimal decision making (maximizing or minimizing certain functions), etc. Calculus helps us to understand and solve these problems. In this introductory calculus course we will study limits, continuity and derivatives of functions and their applications. We will also consider some problems on finding optimum values for functions of two or more variables.

You are required to log onto the course website every week to check out any new information and submit an assignment. In particular, you are responsible for knowing any information announced in the class Blackboard site. The best method to communicate with me is by e-mail.

Course Goals

The objectives of the course are that after completing it the students must master fundamental theoretical facts and apply them to solve concrete real-world problems. In particular, students must know how to

1. Find limits of functions, including limits at infinity and infinite limits, and find where the function is continuous and discontinuous. Use the information on the limits to find asymptotes of a function.

2. Find first and higher derivatives and apply them to find absolute and local maxima, minima, intervals where a function is increasing, decreasing, concave upward or concave downward, the inflection points, and use this information to sketch a graph of the function.

3. Find first and second order partial derivatives of functions of two or more variables and use them to find absolute or local maxima and minima of a function of two or more variables.

4. Solve problems of maximizing or minimizing functions of several variables, under constraints, by using the method of Langrange multipliers.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

ISBN-10: 0321228146   Lial, Greenwell, and Ritchey, Calculus with Applications, 8th Edition, 2004.

LESSON ASSIGNMENTS

The course consists of 6 sections, each having an online quiz. The final examination is a supervisedonline quiz. All 7 quizzes carry equal weight in determining the final grade.

Submission of Lessons

Lessons are submitted through the Blackboard course site.

Completing the Course

You will make the best progress if you set a regular schedule to work on your lessons and submit your assignments. In order to benefit from my comments, you should normally wait to submit a lesson until the previous one has been graded and returned to you.

EXAMINATIONS

There is one supervised online final examination.

GRADING CRITERIA