News

Our final examination will be held Saturday morning at 8:00 in Carson 60.

Our classroom is now 028 Haldeman.
Tutorials and exams are held there as well.

There is no more homework due this term. It will be helpful to you to look at some problems from the latest sections and ask in class, in tutorials, or in office hours if you have any doubts.

Abstract

This course integrates discrete mathematics with algorithms and data structures, using computer science applications to help motivate the mathematics.

Our textbook has 6 chapters, and we will visit each of them.

Classes

Room: 028 Haldeman
Lectures: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 12:30 pm--1:35 pm (12 hour)
X-hour: Tuesday 1:00 pm--1:50pm

Tutorials

Tuesdays in our x-period, 1 PM - 1:50 PM, in our classroom
Thursdays, 7 PM - 8PM, in our classroom

Staff

Instructor:

Carl Pomerance -- 339 Kemeny / Tel. 6-2635
Office hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:00 AM--9:55 AM and by arrangement at other times.

TA:

Xiao Zheng -- 147 Sudikoff
TA Office Hours: Tuesday, 4 PM - 5 PM; Wednesday, 3 PM - 4 PM

Homework Grader:

Colin Ferguson

Textbook

Kenneth P. Bogart, Robert L. Scot Drysdale, and Clifford Stein
Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science, Key College Publishing.
(required)

This book is available from Wheelock Books and elsewhere.

Grading

Your grade will be based on numerical scores for homework, two midterm exams, and a final exam. As much as possible, grades will be based on demonstrated knowledge. However relative performance may be used as a criterion for increasing grades, and grade borderlines will be chosen to place a relatively small number of students on borderlines. At the end of the term, if one of the midterms or your homework average is the lowest of the 4 grades, it will be dropped, with the remaining midterm(s)/homework grades each counting 25% of the grade, and the final counting 50%. If the final exam grade is the lowest, each of the 4 grades will count 25%.

Homework

Homework is due at the start of the class period on the due date. Late homework is generally not accepted unless there is a prior arrangement.
Homework will be generally due once per week on Mondays.
Assignments will be posted on this website, with extra problems and/or comments added as the week progresses.

Past assignments

Homework due Wednesday, Sept. 27:
General instructions for ALL homework assignments: Show your work and explain your steps. Just the answer is not sufficient.
Section 1.1, #2, 6, 13
Section 1.2, #1, 3, 5, 7
Section 1.3, #8 (assume m, n are positive), 14
There was a bonus problem to figure the number of terms when (x1+x2+...+x_k)ⁿ is expanded using the multinomial theorem. This can be thought of as the number of size n multisets taken from k distinct elements, and so is equal to n+k-1 choose n.

Homework due Monday, Oct. 2:
Section 1.4, #4, 6, 10, 12, 16
Section 2.1, #6, 8, 12, 14

Homework due October 9:
Section 2.2, #2, 4, 6, 12, 14, 22.
Section 2.3, #4 (do this one using theorems, and say which theorems you use), 6, 8.
Section 2.4, #2, 12, 14.

Homework due Monday, Oct. 16:
Section 3.1, #6, 8, 13, 15.
Section 3.2, #2, 12, 14.

Homework due Monday, Oct. 23:
Sec. 3.3, #3, 5, 8, 10.
Sec. 4.1, #2, 4, 8.
Sec. 4.2, #2, 11, 13.

Homework due Monday, Oct. 30:
Section 4.3, #1, 6
Section 4.4, #1c,e, 2, 4
Section 4.5, #3, 9. (For 9 you need not use induction. Use the argument from class to get a &Theta estimate for T(n).)

Homework assignment due FRIDAY, Nov. 10:
Section 5.1, #2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
Section 5.2, #2, 4, 8, 10, 12.

Homework due Monday, Nov. 20:
Section 5.3, #6, 8, 10, 12
Section 5.4, #4, 6, 8, 12
Section 5.5, #2, 4, 6, 8a,b,c.

Exams

There will be two midterm exams, held in the evenings of October 10 and October 31 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm I will attempt to construct the exams to be doable in 60 minutes; the extra hour is to help you relax and not feel so rushed.

The final exam will be held on December 2 from 8:00 am to 11:00 am in our Kemeny classroom.

Honor Code

Students are encouraged to work together to do homework problems. What is important is a student's eventual understanding of homework problems, and not how that is achieved. The honor principle applies to homework in the following way. What a student turns in as a homework solution is to be his or her own understanding of how to do the problem. Students must state what sources they have consulted, with whom they have collaborated, and from whom they have received help. Students are discouraged from using solutions to problems that may be posted on the web for previous offerings of the course, and as just stated, must reference them if they use them. The solutions you submit must be written by you alone. Any copying (electronic or otherwise) of anotehr person's code or solutions, in whole or in part, is a violation of the Honor Code.

The honor principle applies to exams as follows: Students may not give or receive assistance of any kind on an exam from any person except for the professor or someone explicitly designated by the professor to answer questions about the exam. Students may not use library or internet sources on take-home exam problems, but they may use their textbook and personal notes.

If you have any questions as to whether some action would be acceptable under the Academic Honor Code, please speak to me or another member of the course staff, and we will be glad to help clarify things. It is always easier to ask beforehand than to have trouble later!

Disabilities

I encourage any students with disabilities, including "invisible" disabilities such as chronic diseases and learning disabilities, to discuss appropriate accommodations with me, which might help you with this class, either after class or during office hours. Dartmouth College has an active program to help students with disabilities, and I am happy to do whatever I can to help out, as appropriate.

The Student Disabilities Coordinator, Nancy Pompian, can be reached at 6-2014 if you have any questions. Any student with a documented disability requiring academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with me by the end of the second week of the term. All discussions will remain confidential, although the Academic Skills Center may be consulted to verify the documentation of the disability and advise on an appropriate response to the need. It is important, however, that you talk to me soon, so that I can make whatever arrangements might be needed in a timely fashion.