Week 7 - Normal Distributions

This week we will be continuing with the statistics notes with a discussion of normal distributions.  You will need your calculators and the z-score table from the end of the notes in class with you every day.  The Math is Fun website has a nice interactive Standard Normal Distribution and introduction to the Standard Normal Distribution.  I recommend that you play around with this to get a better understanding of what we are discussing in class.

There is a review worksheet over the standard normal distribution linked on the right side of the blog.  We will start on these problems in class on Monday; you should complete them for the start of Wednesday's class.

Challenge Problem: (Due Monday, March 6) Scores on a standardized test were normally distributed with mean $$\mu = 70$$ and standard deviation $$\sigma=11.$$  What must you score to be in the top 5% of scores?

Week 6 - Statistics

We will be reviewing counting and probability in class today (Monday).  I have extended the second WebWork assignment for Probability and Statistics to Tuesday, February 21.  Make sure you are keeping up with the WebWork homework.

Please make sure you print the Counting and Probability Review linked on the right side of the blog and bring it to class with you today.  Wednesday, we will move in to statistics.  You'll definitely want to make sure you have your calculator in class with you this week and next.  Statistics is the study of data.  We will start by looking at some ways to organize numerical data and compute some basic numerical summaries.


Challenge Problem: (Due Monday, February 27) The website www.fivethirtyeight.com computes all sorts of statistics.  They also have a weekly "riddle" that uses math, logic, or probability in an interesting way.  Choose one "Riddler" question and read the solution.  (Or try to solve it yourself.)  Were you able to understand the solution?  What didn't you understand?  Were you surprised by the answer?  Print out the riddle and its solution from the website and write a paragraph discussing the riddle and the questions above.  You can go directly to the archive of "Riddler" articles at https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/the-riddler/.

Week 5 - Counting and Probability

This week we will finish up methods of counting and start with probability.  You'll need to apply your methods of counting to many of the probability problems, so make sure that you've got the counting methods down this week.  Make sure that you are bringing your calculator to class every day.

On Monday, we counted the number of 5 card hands that can be dealt from a standard 52 card deck.  In one of my sections, I had a student ask about counting cards.  The podcast This American Life has a fun episode about counting cards for Blackjack.  You can listen to it here.

Challenge Problem (Due Monday, February 20): Option 1: In the game of Euchre, 5 cards are dealt from a deck consisting of the 9, 10, J, Q, K, A of each of the four suits.  Find the probability of getting a hand containing three of a kind.

Option 2: Listen to the podcast linked above and write a 2-3 paragraph summary of the podcast.

(You may only choose one option to complete.)

Week 4 - Exam 1 and Counting

We have our first exam of the semester on Monday.  This concludes our unit on Graph Theory.  Wednesday, we will start discussing Probability and Statistics.  Make sure that you print the notes for this unit.  There are a lot of pages in these notes, so you might want to print multiple slides per page.  (The link to the notes is available on the right side of the blog or on the right side of the WebWork.) You'll also want to make sure you bring your calculators to class for this unit.  We'll kick off the Probability and Stats unit with some discussions of methods of counting this week.  Consider the question below.

Look at the menu of your favorite pizza shop.  How many different types of crusts, sauces, and toppings are there?  How many different three topping pizzas could you make if a pizza consists of a crust, sauce, and three toppings?  What about four topping pizzas?

These are the kinds of questions we will be able to answer after Friday.

Challenge Problem (Due WEDNESDAY, February 15): Print the menu from your favorite pizza shop.  How many different types of crusts, sauces, and toppings are there?  How many different three topping pizzas could you make if a pizza consists of one crust, one sauce, and three toppings?  What about four topping pizzas? Include the pizza menu with your answer.

Exam Review Solutions

Graph Theory Exam Review solutions are available at the link here.

No Class on 02/03/17

I will not be on campus on Friday February 3, so class and office hours are canceled for this Friday.  To make up for the missed class, you should complete the worksheet linked below.  You may work in groups of up to 4 members and turn in one solution set per group.  I will collect your work on Monday February 6.  I will still be available via email on Friday and throughout the weekend.

Out of Class Assignment for 02/03/17

Don't forget that Exam 1 will be in class on Monday February 6.  I will also collect your graded Graph Theory Worksheets 1-4 on Monday.  You can grade your worksheets in the CAS.