MIT

18.01: Single Variable Calculus - Fall 2011 Edition
News | Start | Contacts | Resources | How do I...? | Syllabus | Notes | Homework | Exams

News and announcements

For course announcements (like changes to office hours), see the Stellar page. All other important information appears on this page.

Getting started

  • To take the class, you have to be registered for it. If you want to take this class on a not-for-credit basis, you still have to register as a listener.

  • Please read through this whole webpage as it contains important information.

  • The textbook is George F. Simmons, Calculus with Analytic Geometry, 2nd edition. You will also need a copy of the 18.01 Supplementary Notes and Problems by Arthur Mattuck and David Jerison. A copy of these notes is available for free here; they are also available for Print-On-Demand from CopyTech for around $13. (Part of the homework will be taken from those notes, and they also contain additional material for the course.)

  • Recitations meet on the first day of classes, Wednesday Sept 7. You may view the recitation you're assigned to on Stellar. The first lecture is on Thursday Sept 8.

  • The instructor will use MATLAB (a mathematical software package) for doing computations during lectures. You can actually use it yourself as well! It's not obligatory, but I recommend it since it's so much better than a graphing calculator, and really allows you to experiment with calculus. It comes pre-installed on all Athena systems: you login and type

    add matlab
    matlab

    To start. If you have problems, these people at MIT can help you. You can get also a free license to install MATLAB on your own computer: see the MIT MATLAB page.

    Contacts

    Lecturer: Paul Seidel, pseidel@mit.edu, Office 2-270
    Course coordinator: Joel Lewis, jblewis@math.mit.edu, Office 2-489

    Recitation instructors:
    Ian Shipman, ishipman@mit.edu, Office 4-182
    Tirasan Khandhawit, tirasan@math.mit.edu, Office 2-488
    Charles Smart, smart@math.mit.edu, Office 2-339
    Lorenzo Orecchia, lorecchia@math.mit.edu, Office 2-332
    Jonathan Novak, jnovak@math.mit.edu, Office 2-339
    Joel Lewis, jblewis@math.mit.edu, Office 2-489

    For issues with homework, contact your recitation instructor. For issues with midterms, contact the course coordinator. For issues with the final exam or grade, contact the lecturer. For mathematical issues, talk to any of us!

    Course components and resources

  • Lectures are TuTh 1:05-1:55, Fri 2:05-2:55, in room 54-100. The midterms will be in a different room, but during the same time.

  • A list of recitation times and rooms is here. During the semester, you can view your recitation section and even (if space is available) switch to a different one on Stellar.

  • Feel free to go to any instructor's office hours (even if you're not in his/her recitation). Below are the regular hours, but please check the announcements for possible rescheduling.

  • The learning center is staffed by nice and helpful people, who can answer questions about the course material, homework, and general mathematics. You can walk-in or set up one-to-one appointments. Highly recommended!

  • There is a version of this class (not covering exactly the same material, but a good approximation) developed for self-study on OCW Scholar. Again, very useful!

    • How do I...?

    For usual policies and procedures for this particular class, see this document. For general MIT policies, this could be a starting point.

    Syllabus

    The course covers differential and integral calculus in one variable, together with applications, and some material about limits. This corresponds roughly to Chapters 1-13 of the textbook. The detailed syllabus may keep evolving during the semester.

    Lecture notes and other material

    You can find here some lecture notes used in preparing the class. Availability may vary during the semester, and neither completeness nor correctness are guaranteed. In particular, these can't replace attendance at the class.

    Graphing handout
    Lecture 1; MATLAB transcript; Blake, Jerusalem
    Lecture 2; MATLAB transcript; I recommend the OpenCourseWare notes and worked example
    Lecture 3; MATLAB transcript; Googling provided another explanation with examples; Descartes, Geometry
    Lecture 4; MATLAB transcript; I recommend the OpenCourseWare worked example
    Lecture 5; MATLAB transcript; Berkeley, The Analyst
    Lecture 6; MATLAB transcript; I recommend the OpenCourseWare worked example and recitation video
    Lecture 7; MATLAB transcript; Leibniz' paper on differentiation
    Lecture 8
    Lecture 9; MATLAB transcript; The South transept rose of the cathedral of Chartres
    Lecture 10; MATLAB transcript; more explanations of quadratic splines from around the Web
    Lecture 11; MATLAB transcript; Fatio de Duillier and his signature collection
    Lecture 12; MATLAB transcript; More about beams (our formula is the bottom link); Taylor polynomials applet
    Lecture 13; Taylor approximation from OpenCourseWare, with examples and old exam questions; the school of Kerala
    Lecture 14; MATLAB transcript
    Lecture 15; Wikipedia has a nice Taylor's theorem page; Biographical material on Mme de Chatelet
    Lecture 16; MATLAB transcript
    Lecture 17; Ada Lovelace's translation and notes; The first canto of Byron's Don Juan (see Stanza XII)
    Lecture 18; and MATLAB transcript
    Lecture 19; MATLAB transcript; Euler's calculus textbook
    Lecture 20; practice trig integrals with the OCW version of the class, and more of that, and even more
    Lecture 21; MATLAB transcript; again there's material on OCW; and Cauchy's calculus textbook
    Lecture 22
    Lecture 23; MATLAB transcript
    Lecture 24
    Lecture 25; MATLAB transcript; an article on Kepler's barrel measurement paper
    Lecture 26
    Lecture 27; Analysis of the US income distribution
    Lecture 28; MATLAB transcript
    Lecture 29; Cavalieri's book on integration
    Lecture 30; smooth your skin with Gaussian blur
    Lecture 31; Laplace's book on probability
    Lecture 32; Wikipedia has excellent pages on the the trapezoid rule, the midpoint rule, and Simpson's rule
    Lecture 33; Mandelbrot's paper on the length of the coast of Britain
    Lecture 34

    Homework

    Homework can be downloaded here (we will not distribute paper copies). It is due on Fridays 15 minutes before class, in 2-106. Solutions will be posted here immediately after the deadline. You can look up your homework grades via Stellar.

    Problem set 1, due 9/16 (see instructions on the sheet). Solutions.
    Problem set 2, due 9/23. Solutions to Thursday's part 1 (including practice midterm). Part 2 solutions
    Problem set 3, due 9/30. Solutions.
    Problem set 4, due 10/7. Solutions.
    Problem set 5, due 10/14. Solutions.

    The great confusion! I accidentally overwrote the original Version 1 of Pset 6 with a different one (Version 2). This affects Problems 6 and 9 (as well as the formulation of Problem 8). Simple solution: just do whichever version you started or like best, and submit by the usual deadline (10/21). Indicate "Version 1" or "Version 2" clearly at the top of your pset. Here are both for reference:

    Problem set 6 Version 1. Solutions
    Problem set 6 Version 2. Solutions

    Problem set 7, due 10/28. Solutions
    Problem set 8, due 11/4. Solutions
    Problem set 9, due 11/18 (note the date). Partial solution (practice midterm only) Rest of solutions.
    Problem set 10, due 12/2 (note the date). Partial solution (practice midterm only). Rest of solutions (corrected version, 12/6/11).
    Problem set 11, due 12/9. Solutions.
    Self-assessment test.

    Homework policies: Collaboration is allowed, but the writeup must be done by yourself in your own words, and you must understand the entire argument (saying "we split up the work and my friend did this particular one" won't be sufficient). Consulting solutions from solution manuals (other than the Supplementary Notes, of course) or from previous years is strictly forbidden.

    There are absolutely no deadline extensions for the homework. If you run into prolems, talk to your recitation instructor. One solution he/she may offer is to "fill in" missing homework with the average of your other homework grades. However, this or other solutions are not going to happen automatically: you have to discuss your situation yourself (by email or in person) with the instructor, and you will then receive an email which confirms the arrangement.

    Exams and grades

    There will be four midterms exams:

  • Friday, September 23
  • Friday, October 21
  • Tuesday, November 8
  • Thursday, December 1
    • Note that the exams take place during class time but not in the usual lecture hall -- instead, they are held in Walker Memorial. You can find your grades for past midterms on our Stellar page.

    Here is the official cheat sheet, which will come attached to the final. The present version is a draft, corrections to errors are welcome.

    Midterm policies: If you fail a midterm, you will be notified, and you can take the makeup midterm (once for each exam, and at specified times - which will be posted here and in 2-102) to increase your score. In this situation, taking the makeup can not decrease your given score, but can only increase it to the minimum passing level (any points over it that you get in the makeup will be discarded). Usually, the same holds if you did not attend the midterm and do not have a valid reason. Course policy is that you cannot take any midterm, including makeups, at a later date.

    If you run into problems, talk to the course coordinator. If there is still time, he may allow you to take the makeup midterm for full credit. Another possible solution is to "fill in" missing midterms with the average of your other midterm grades. However, this or other solutions are not going to happen automatically: you have to discuss your situation yourself (by email or in person) with the course coordinator, and you will then receive an email which confirms the arrangement.

    There will be a written final exam. Exam scheduling is handled by the Registrar's office, see here.

    The grading scheme is: we weight midterms 40%, final 35%, homework 25%. Your grade depends only on the total weighted score achieved (there is no ``curve'', but I can't tell you what the grade levels will be until after the final exam). If you are a freshperson, MIT records grades on the official transcript only as Pass/Fail. For more about grades at MIT than you ever wanted to know, see the official guide.