A number of items on the docket for this email:
– The complete homework 4 assignment is posted in Assignments
– I made a mistake in my solution set for the exam, in part (a) of question 3. The correct answer is that the population after 3 months can be at most 8 times the current population, not at most twice the current population. I’ve just updated the solution set on Blackboard. I’m very sorry for my carelessness.
– I’m not sure whether the grader caught my error, so if you were unjustly marked wrong on that problem come see me and I’ll change your grade accordingly. If you were unjustly marked correct, keep the points — my treat. If you have other issues with grading come see me — particularly if you were docked an excessive amount of points for a small arithmetic error. My rubric calls for only one or two points off (usually — maybe more depending on where it occurs and how egregious it is) in most cases of small calculation errors, so if you lost 8 points for a very small mistake you might be entitled to some of the points back. Please understand that it is difficult for the grader to follow your calculation through to see if your mistake was purely calculation-based or representative of a more grave shortcoming of yours (especially with ~115 exams to grade), so try not to get too frustrated.
– I’ll be in my office from 3:00 – 5:15 pm tomorrow (Thursday 3 October) to deal with exam grading issues. If you didn’t get to pick up your exam in class today, you can get it then. You can also come by next week — after class on Monday or during regular office hours on Tuesday.
– If you’re feeling down about your exam grade, watch some Monty Python sketches. That’ll cheer you right up. If you’re feeling good about your exam grade, read some news articles. That’ll sadden you right down.
– R.I.P. Tom Clancy. I was not a big fan of his, but a lot of people loved his work, so big ups to him.
– The kouign amann is a buttery, caramelly pastry from Brittany, France. It is really tasty. I made this one:
from a recipe by David Lebovitz that you can find here. You can buy them from Dominique Ansel (maker of the cronut) in NYC.
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tl;dr – Come on, there’s no tl;dr. Just read the damn email. (At least the first, math-related parts of it.) Gee whiz.
Prof. Prattle 