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Homework 4 / exam 1 / office hours

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.
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Suggested practice problems for Wednesday’s Exam 1

Section 1.3: 5, 7, 9

Section 1.4: 9
Section 2.1: 5
Section 2.2: 3, 5, 17, 27, 33
Section 2.4: 9, 25(a), 31
Section 2.5: 5, 7, 9, 11, 15
– You should also review mathematical induction and the examples thereof that we did in class. Another exercise in induction: prove that the sum of the first n positive integers is n(n+1)/2.
– After you’re done with that, check out this picture of Bob Marley that was for sale for $100 at a visitor center near the Grand Canyon:
bob 2013-08-08 11.46.45
One hundred American dollars for that.

Homework 3 posted
Esteemed students,
You will find the third homework assignment in the Assignment tab. It’s due Wednesday the 18th of September.
Here is a picture of a building that used to be a White Castle, but now is not one. How sad.

wc

But wait actually White Castle is not very good, so this is not so sad after all.
Remember: As Jack Handey reminds us, it’s funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, but they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating. Don’t be like the pirates — appreciate life’s journey. Also, don’t steal or murder.