Math 41 Homework Assignments

About homework

• Daily homework should be done after each lecture, on the same day as the lecture. It serves as a review of the lecture material and your opportunity to really figure out what's going on. The daily homework will not be collected, but you should come to the next discussion section meeting prepared to present solutions to problems you could do and ask specific questions about problems you couldn't do. You are free to work with as many other students as you like on daily homework, and ask questions about it in office hours. Note that you should also be reading the textbook sections as you do the daily homework -- the examples are a great help, and there may also occasionally be important material covered there that there isn't time for in lecture.

  Some daily homework problems will have a * in front of the number. These are more challenging problems which we don't necessarily expect most students to be able to solve, but which are good for you to try and think hard about. Usually, your TA will present a solution to these problems if no student in a discussion section was able to solve them.

• Weekly homework should be done after you've mastered the daily homework on the same material. It serves as your opportunity to make sure you can not only solve the problems, but explain your solutions carefully (this is the only way to be sure you really understand them!), as well as get some feedback on your work. Weekly homework is to be done on your own, without help from fellow students -- this is so that you can make sure before the exam that you can do these problems by yourself. Weekly homework will not be discussed in sections, and only hints will be given on weekly homework problems in office hours. (Remember, you should think of it as a take-home quiz.) However, feel free to ask about similar problems, whether assigned as daily homework or not. The Honor Code applies to this and all other graded aspects of the course.

  The weekly homework is intended to be preparation for the exams (and daily homework is your main preparation for the weekly homework). Remember that even though it is graded, all of the weekly homework counts toward your final grade about as much as three problems on a midterm.

  As mentioned above, your solutions to weekly homework should be carefully and clearly explained, and they will be graded partly on that basis. It's your job to explain your answer to the grader, not the grader's job to search for a right idea buried in what you wrote. Also, the graders will consider anything illegible to be wrong.

  Logistics: The weekly take-home quizzes must be turned in to your TA -- you will not receive credit for work turned into another section leader. (If you're unable to turn in your homework in section, slide it under your TA's office door.) The deadline is 3:15 p.m. on the given due date, and no late homework will be accepted under any circumstances. (This is as much a courtesy to the grader as an incentive to stay current with the course and not fall behind.) To accommodate exceptional situations such as a serious illness, your lowest two homework scores will be dropped at the end of the quarter. Solutions will be posted on this page by the following morning.

Daily homework assignments

• September 21
  • Read the Section Assignments to determine which discussion section you should attend starting Tuesday. Note: you cannot use Axess to sign up for a discussion section, only a lecture. You must use CourseWork to make your discussion section choice -- and the chart on the page linked above will show you the options for times.
  • Look at the Course Schedule. Make sure you know when the three exams are (not during the lecture time or in the regular classroom; locations TBA) and when the weekly homeworks are due. If you have a conflict with one of the two midterm exam times, as soon as you know about it. (The final exam's date and time cannot be changed.)
  • Look over the course web page and get to know what information is there. Read all the General Information on the home page (including the section "About this class") and the About homework section above so you know the course policies and logistics.
  • Look at the links at the very bottom of the course home page and follow the suggestions there about reading those pages.
  • Read sections 1.1 through 1.3 -- this is probably old familiar stuff, but we won't cover it all in lecture, so make sure you've seen it all.
  • 1.1: #1, 7, 41, 59, 63, 73
  • 1.2: #3, 7, 15
  • 1.3: #1, 3, 19, 29, 41, 47, 51
• September 23
  • Handout from lecture: precalc checklist
  • The following will be handed out in section tomorrow: sample writeups for homework and exam problems
  • 1.5: #1, 13, 19, 23, 29, 35 (graphing calculator portions optional)
  • 1.6: #3, 11, 31, 41, 51, 55
• September 25
  • 2.2: #1, 5, 15
  • 2.3: #1, 9, 21, 29, 37, 47
  • Appendix D: #1, *15 (Note: read Appendix D only up to the end of page A29.)
• September 28
  • 2.4: #3, 11, 23, 31, 35, 43, *51
• September 30
  • 2.5: #3, 7, 19, 21, 23, 27, 33, 47
  • Handout for Thursday's section: Limit hints
• October 2
  • 2.6: #7, 11, 17, 37, 43ab, 45, 47, *53
  • 2.7: #3, 7, 27, 35, 41
  • Note: For now, use only the methods of these sections, not differentiation shortcuts you might have seen elsewhere.
• October 5
  • Go back to complete any remaining problems from Friday's daily homework.
  • 2.8: #7, 15, 23, 29
• October 7
  • 3.1: #19, 21, *69, 71
  • 3.2: #5, 9, 45
  • 3.3: #13, 19, 35
• October 9
  • Good luck on Exam 1!
  • Be sure to visit our Exams Page to get information and review materials for next Tuesday's exam. Check office hours here
• October 12
  • 3.4: #1, 13, 19, 21, 27, 31, 49, 53
  • Notes: In reading Section 3.4, skip the sub-section called "Tangents to Parametric Curves," which starts after Example 9 and ends on page 204. (These and Wednesday's daily homework problems will be discussed in Thursday's section.)
• October 14
  • 3.5: #11, 23, 27, 31
  • Additional problem: at what points does the curve in problem 23 have a horizontal tangent? (Answer: at (-1,2) and (1,-2).)
  • 3.6: #19, 25
• October 16
  • 3.7: #5, 13, 17, 19, 35, 39, *47
  • 3.9: #5, 7, 15, 29, *35
  • Note: Depending on your instructor and meeting time, some of these topics may not be discussed in class until Monday.
• October 19
  • 4.3: #1, 63, 65
  • Plus, any leftover problems from Friday's daily homework, now that we've covered all of 3.7 and 3.9.
  • Note: In reading Section 4.3, read only page 272 for now (the rest will be covered next week).
• October 21
  • Handout from lecture: Related Rates problem-solving tips
  • 4.1: #11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 25, 29, 35, 41
  • Note: Full solutions to problems 11-14 will made available and handed out in section, but there is no substitute for first working these practice problems yourself.   Solutions to 11-14
• October 23
  • 4.2: #1, 3, 11, 33, 35, 43, 47, *55
• October 26
  • 4.3: #5, 7, 29, 33, 39
• October 28
  • 4.5: #1, 13, 19, 27, 31, 37, 41, 53, 65
• October 30
  • 4.6: #3, 11, 19, 23, 25, 31, 45, 59a
  • Note: Full written solutions to problems 11, 19, and 23 will be made available by next Tuesday's section -- but you should be thinking carefully about all these problems on your own before consulting solutions.   Solutions to 11, 19, 23, plus comments
• November 2
  • Handout from lecture: Absolute Extrema for Optimization
  • 4.6: Take some more time to work through Friday's problems.
  • 4.7: #1, 3, 5, 11, 15, 31 (these problems will be discussed in Thursday's section)
• November 4
  • 4.8: 5, 11, 25, 31, 39, 53, 57a,b
• November 6
  • Good luck on Exam 2! The exam covers all material since October 9, through the end of Chapter 4.
  • Check out our Exams page for logistical information and review advice, and our Office Hours page for the updated chart of office hours.
• November 9
  • 5.1: #1, 3, 15
  • 5.2: #5, 7, 9
  • Notes: Due to the plans for midterm review in Tuesday's section, Sections 5.1 and 5.2 will be discussed in Thursday's section meetings.
  • We will use sigma notation throughout the next three weeks; see Appendix F for a review.
• November 11
  • 5.1: #21
  • 5.2: #17, 21, *23, 27
• November 13
  • 5.2: #40, 47, 49, 51
  • 5.3: #5, 15, 17, 23, 31, 39, 43, 49, 51, 53, 59
  • Note: The answer to 5.2 #40 is (8-5√5).
• November 16
  • 5.4: #3, 5, 13, 17, 25, *30, 31
• November 18
  • 5.5: #11, 21, 27, 31, 35, 47, 51, 60, 61, *68
  • Note: The answer to #60 is (π/8).
• November 20
  • 5.6: #5, 7, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 39

Weekly homework assignments

1. Due Tuesday, Sept. 29. Solutions (pdf)
   • 1.1: #12, 70 (skip the graphing calculator part)
   • 1.2: #4, 16
   • 1.3: #6, 24
   • 1.5: #20, 22
   • 1.6: #22
   • Problems Page 88: #11 (explain your answer without a calculator)
2. Due Tuesday, Oct. 6. Solutions (pdf)
   • 2.2: #14
   • 2.3: #20, 22, 32
   • Appendix D: #16
   • 2.4: #34
   • 2.5: #8, 16, 48
3. Due Thursday, Oct. 15 (but it's best to try these before the exam for practice). Solutions (pdf)
   • 2.6: #12, 52
   • 2.7: #26, 44 (use only the methods of this chapter, not differentiation shortcuts from Chapter 3)
   • 2.8: #24
   • 3.1: #48
   • 3.2: #50
   • 3.3: #12
4. Due Tuesday, Oct. 20. Solutions (pdf)
   • 3.4: #10, 36, 56, 64
   • 3.5: #30 (skip part c), 32
   • 3.6: #30, 40
5. Due Tuesday, Oct. 27. Solutions (pdf)
   • 3.7: #14, 42
   • 3.9: #18, 32
   • 4.1: #20, 28, 40
   • 4.3: #64
6. Due Tuesday, Nov. 3. Solutions (pdf)
   • 4.2: #32, 52
   • 4.3: #24, 28, 34
   • 4.5: #36, 44, 66
7. Due Thursday, Nov. 12 (but it's best to try these before the exam for practice). Solutions (pdf)
   • 4.6: #28, 56
   • 4.7: #4, 24
   • 4.8: #28, 38, 56
   • Tip for 4.8 #56: Treat "downward" as the positive direction.
8. Due Thursday, Nov. 19. Solutions (pdf)
   • 5.1: #12, 18
   • 5.2: #4, 24, 32, 34, 44, 48
9. Due Tuesday, Dec. 1.
   • 5.3: #54, 62, 72
   • 5.4: #18, 20
   • 5.5: #10, 26, 54