PATTERNS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATH FALL 2015 UPDATE PAGE
SITARAMAN
Welcome.
Here you will see info about what we did in class, upcoming exams, solutions for past exams, etc.,
SYLLABUS
Old exams from Dr. McGowan's class that was similar to this:
EXAM 1
EXAM 2
FINAL EXAM
You can use the above exams to prepare for exams in this course but primarily our exams will be based on the assignments given on a regular basis.
CHECK AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK!!
Started 8/20/2015
Updated 1/4/2016
Solutions to Final Exam
FINAL EXAM WED DEC 9 FROM 11 AM TO 1PM IN ROOM 305 CHEM BLDG
THIRD FLOOR ON LEFT SIDE ON END OF HALLWAY, TURN LEFT AFTER GETTING OFF STAIRS
Review in class today, based on Practice Final (thanks to Dr. McGowan)
Office hours Mon, Tue next week (Dec 7,8) from 1 to 3pm.
Updated 12/1/2015
Solutions to Test 3
Test 3 on Monday Nov. 30: Material from classes until mon Nov 23 as well as material from test 2.
Updated 11/27/2015
Solutions to selected Assignment problems
Project due this friday Nov. 20 ; See email or blackboard for instructions.
Updated 11/18/2015
Assignment 16, due monday 11/23
Tutorial on geometric sequences
Updated 11/14/2015
Bloomberg interactive graph "What is really warming the world ? "
This interactive feature shows graphs corresponding to different factors
They include influence of sun, changes in earth's orbit, volcanoes, etc.,
You see that predicted warming due to CO2 increase matches most closely
with rise in temperature
The correlation coefficient tells you, in a certain sense, how closely two sets of data match.
Updated 11/9/2015
Recycling Powerpoint by Prof. Schwartzman
Trailer for "The E-Waste Tragedy"
Updated 11/9/2015
TEST II SOLUTIONS
Please come to class for guest lecture today. You will get a grade for attending and answering questions
Updated 11/5/2015
Answers for Practice Test 2
Please also try the additional practice problems (from environmental studies) posted below.
TEST II ON FRIDAY NOV 6
REVIEW IN CLASS ON WED, NOV 4
PRACTICE TEST
More practice problems for Test 2
Section 6.1 (especially exercise 6.1) from chapter 6 and Probability and astatistics will be in this Test. If you study all the material on the update page (after Test I) you should be well prepared for test. First please go through all the assignments and read all the material related to the problems in the assignments. The test will be 15% of total grade (45/300).
Please try the Practice Test. Actual test will be similar although not exactly same.
Updated 11/2/2015
More practice problems for Test 2
Please also try the webwork problems posted by Dr. McGowan.
To do this go to Webwork main page and read the instructions on how to log in.
Then on that same page, click on "Math-012mcgowan" and login to do the problems.
Updated 10/30/2015
Assignment 14, due wednesday
Updated 10/26/2015
video on using Excel to make charts
Updated 10/23/2015
First set of data was due today (friday). See announcement on blackboard for more details.
Assignment 13, due Wednesday 10/28
Find median, mode, mean, range, variance and standard deviation for the following data:
Temperatures for first 10 days of July:
73, 75,77,78,78,79,79,79,79,80
Plot the temperatures for each day as a (i) line chart (ii) bar graph.
Will post video on using Excel to make charts, soon.
Test II will be coming up soon, within two weeks.
Updated 10/22/2015
Currently we are doing statistics.
Please study
Basic statistics with examples from environmental studies
This write-up thanks to Dr. McGowan.
Will post an assignment soon
Updated 10/19/2015
Assignment 12, due wednesday
A video I made on what probability can tell us about climate change
The materal we used for probability can found in any college algebra textbook.
Updated 10/13/2015
Assignment 11, due this friday
Updated 10/7/2015
MIT lecture notes on Units of energy
Updated 10/5/2015
(Will start probability and statistics later).
Assignment 10, due friday
A video I made on land needed to power the US using solar panels
Please select project topic by wednesday.
Use topics from textbook or from material on this page.
Updated 10/2/2015
TEST I SOLUTIONS
I will start on probability and statistics on Monday.
TEST I ON WEDNESDAY SEP 30
REVIEW IN CLASS ON MON, SEP 28
PRACTICE TEST
All of chapter 1 and section 16.4 from chapter 16 and sections 17.2 and 17.3 of chapter 17 will be the material for the first Test. If you study all the material on the update page you should be well prepared for test. First please go through all the assignments and read all the material related to the problems in the assignments. The test will be 15% of total grade (45/300).
Please try Exam 1 at the top (all except problems 5 and 7) as well as the Practice Test. Actual test will be similar although not exactly same.
Updated 9/25/2015
More helpful videos on permutations and combinations:
factorial-and-counting-seat-arrangements
permutation-formula
possible-three-letter-words
permutations-and-combinations-2
Introduction to Permutations and Combinations
Updated 9/23/2015
ASSIGNMENT 9
Do problems 1,4 and 17 from exercise 1.10. Also draw a graph of C (CO2 concentration) as a function of Delta F.
[Hint: For drawing the graph use the equation of C in terms of Delta F that we got in class by solving for C in the equation of the Greenhouse Law of Arrhenius;
For problem 4 to answer the question about methane you can mention the release of methane from the permafrost in places like Alaska and Siberia as the ice thaws due to warming].
Updated 9/22/2015
Assignments 6 and 7 were due monday but you can still bring them on wednesday (tomorrow). Assignment 8 is due tomorrow.
If you need help please talk to me asap. I am in my office from 11 to 4.30 MWF (except when I am teaching) and 11 to 1 on Thu.
Tomorrow we will continue with section 1.9 (Greenhouse law).
Updated on 9/18/2015
Video we watched in class today, about world's oil future
This video is about the variation in oil production in time, which is the topic of assignment 7
Assignment 8, based on exercise 1.7 of text and articles below
Practice problems on logarithms are on webwork. Only for practice, not for submitting or for grades. Go to webwork.howard.edu and click on the class named MATH-012mcgowan. There are 2 homework assignments. 00Introduction just teaches you to use webwork. Logarithms gives you some practice in logs. Your user name is first initial & last name (all lower case, all one word), with one exception. Anthony Cooper's user name is ancooper, and Adam Cooper is acooper. Password is the student ID without the "@" sign, but with the initial zero. If you have trouble see Dr. McGowan.
Updated on 9/17/2015
TUTORIALS ON LOGARITHMS
(We used logarithms to solve exponential equations that came up in compound interest, feedback growth, radioactive decay problems)
Khan Academy video: Logarithm basics
Khan Academy video: Properties of lzogarithms
Supplementary reading on climate change
Global Warming: Three Numbers that tell a scary story
Walter's article on the Math of Earthquakes and Weather
Why Global Warming Skeptics are Wrong -William Nordhaus
Updated on 9/15/2015
Assignments 6 and 7 are due by Monday Sep 21.
If you do not have the textbook, open the following:
Assignment 6 ;
Assignment 7
If you have textbook, do the following:
Assignment 6: (Read relevant sections of chapter 16 and 17 first) 16.9 (i), (ii), (iii), (vi) ; 17.7: (i),(iii),(iv) ; 17.6, (v).
Assignment 7: (From Chapter 1, section 1.7; read it first) Exercise 1.8, (i),(ii),(iv),(viii)
Updated on 9/6/2015
Hope everyone is having a great labor day weekend! Here are videos of lectures by Dr. Schwartzmann and Mark Chambers. Assignments 4 and 5 are based mostly on these videos and Dr. Schwartzmann's powerpoint slides, which are also on this page, further down. Because I am late in posting them, I am giving until friday to finish these. I am hopeful that these videos can also be posted on youtube eventually.
Assignment 5:
Questions on Mark Chambers' lecture
Video of Mark Chambers' lecture
Another talk by Mark Chambers, just for fun : "Composting the Poison Apple"
Assignment 4:
Questions on compound interest and exponential decay
Dr. Schwartzman’s closing words on his powerpoint,9/4/2015 -- would help with second half of Assignment 4
Updated on 9/4/2015
Due to problems with blackboard, unable to upload videos of Mark Chambers' lecture as well as Dr. Schwartzmann's concluding remarks from his powerpoint
yet. Will post them as well as the next assignments over the weekend. Have a great labor day weekend!
SPECIAL LECTURE ON FRIDAY, 9/4
Mark Chambers, Associate Director of DC dept of general services,
will talk about how they use technology to make DC government buldings more energy efficient.
Assignment based on lecture will count for 3% of grade.
Updated 8/31/2015
Assignment #3: (see below for previous 2 assignments)
PLEASE DO EXERCISES 1.2 and 1.3 IN CHAPTER 1, PAGES 4 AND 5.
Due by friday in class.
Use the following tutorials, if you wish, to do these two exercises above. You can do them without watching the videos but it will help to know the material in the videos, for later assignments.
Another Tutorial on compound interest, this time from Khan Academy
Tutorial on exponential decay, from Khan academy
[Includes discussion of carbon-14 dating of material. If we know how much we have left of original carbon-14, we can say how old the material is.]
Updated on 8/25/2015
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR 8/26 CLASS
Movie about the campaign against electric trolleys, mentioned in section 1.1 of textbook:
MOVIE: TAKEN FOR A RIDE(added by Dr. McGowan)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO HELP YOU LEARN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE:
Updated 8/26/2015
Assignment #2: PLEASE DO EXERCISE 1.1 IN CHAPTER 1 AS HW PROBLEM.
Will email chapter 1. Please buy textbook asap.
Tutorial on compound interest from Math is Fun
POWERPOINT FOR DR. SCHWARTZMAN'S UPCOMING LECTURES
Updated on 8/25/2015
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR 8/26 CLASS
Movie about the campaign against electric trolleys, mentioned in section 1.1 of textbook:
MOVIE: TAKEN FOR A RIDE(added by Dr. McGowan)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO HELP YOU LEARN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE:
Indications that Climate Change is happening (added by Dr. McGowan)
MOVIE: Who killed the Electric Car? (added by Dr. McGowan)
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR 8/24 CLASS (FIRST MEETING)
PLEASE READ AND BRING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BELOW TO WEDNESDAY'S CLASS
Graph of CO2 over past 650000 years
Graph of CO2 over past 60 years
WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE? VIDEO: climate change 101
WEATHER VS CLIMATE
HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE THE PROBLEM?
THE ECONOMIC INJUSTICE OF PLASTIC
Assignment #1:
HW QUESTIONS TO PRINT OUT, FILL UP AND BRING TO CLASS ON WED 8/26