FIRST DAY HANDOUT, M328K #53645
################################################################ COURSE AND SYLLABUS ################################################################ COURSE: M328K INTRO TO NUMBER THEORY-WB (53645) Fall 2020 PREREQUISITES: M341 or M325K, with a grade of at least C- RECOMMENDED TEXT: Kenneth H. Rosen, "Elementary Number Theory", 6th ed. ROUGH SYLLABUS: induction, divisibility, prime numbers, fundamental theorem of arithmetic; congruences, applications, Chinese remainder theorem, Euler theorem; multiplicative functions, Moebius inversion, cryptology; primitive roots, index arithmetic; quadratic residues; continued fractions. INSTRUCTOR: Hans Koch All course activities will be online. All course-related information (except recorded lectures) will be posted on the class web page http://web.ma.utexas.edu/users/koch/M328K/ --------------------------------------------------------------- DROP deadline: Thursday October 29 Last day an undergraduate student may, with the dean's approval, withdraw from the University or drop a class except for urgent and substantiated, nonacademic reasons. SSD: Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, http://diversity.utexas.edu/disability/ ################################################################ LECTURES ################################################################ Tue Thu 11:00 am - 12:30 via Zoom Detailed lecture notes will be posted HERE one week in advance, together with a list of topics for the upcoming two lectures. Students are strongly encouraged to read the notes before the lecture. The online lectures will be interactive Zoom sessions. The Meeting ID will be announced ahead of time via Canvas. Login via your UT Account. Guest logins will not be allowed. The lectures will be recorded and made available afterwards on Canvas. (Active speaker with shared screen, participants' names.) Class recordings are reserved only for students in this class for educational purposes and are protected under FERPA. The recordings should not be shared outside the class in any form. Violation of this restriction by a student could lead to Student Misconduct proceedings. The online lectures follow the lecture notes, on a somewhat more basic level than the notes, including summaries, previews, extra context, etc. There is time for answering questions, including homework-related questions. There may be some "poll" questions during lectures to test basic understanding. ################################################################ OFFICE HOURS ################################################################ My office hours are Mon and Fri 3:30 - 4:30. During office hours I will be on Zoom for video conferencing. The Meeting ID will be announced ahead of time via Canvas. ################################################################ HOMEWORK AND QUIZ ################################################################ Homework will be assigned/posted every Tuesday HERE and is due the following Tuesday by the end of the day. The homework format is free-style. The student solves the problems on paper, in her/his own handwriting, then scans the pages (e.g. with a smartphone) into a single pdf file. The pdf file is then uploaded to Gradescope. (This takes a few steps, so please budget enough time for this.) Credit will be given mainly for valid, relevant, and comprehensible solution steps. Just answers receive little credit. There will be around 12 homework assignments during the semester. Each assignment consists of roughly 5 problems. Only 2 or 3 of these problems will be graded, with the maximal score per homework set being 10, except ... At the end of the semester, one of the homework sets (the same for all students) will be re-graded in full and counted like a quiz. This quiz contributes 20% towards the course grade. For the remaining homework sets, the sum of the highest 10 scores contribute 15% towards the course grade. ################################################################ EXAMS ################################################################ There will be two 75-minute midterm exams and a 2-hour final exam. The midterm exams are given during class periods, and the final exam is given during the official (default) time period. The dates and times are listed below and HERE. The exam problems will be posted HERE shortly before the exams starts. Students are required to be on Zoom and visible during exams. The students' exam solutions are due (via upload to Gradescope) no later than 45 minutes after the official exam period ends. Gradescope will allow submissions that are up to 30 minutes late, but they will be accepted without penalty only if the delay is due to technical difficulties and the student explains the circumstances via email. Each exam is graded on a scale from 0 to 60 points and is "curved" to a number grade from 0 to 100 via an affine function (example: grade = 10 + 1.5 * points). The correspondence between number grades and letter grades is fixed and posted on the exam page. The course grade is obtained via averaging from the number grades on the three exams, the quiz, and the homework. Midterm 1: Tue Sep 29, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm (weight 20%) Midterm 2: Thu Oct 29, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm (weight 20%) Final: Mon Dec 14, 9:00 am - 11:00 am (weight 25%) Quiz: (weight 20%) Homework: (weight 15%) No make-up exams are given, except in documented cases of illness or emergencies. For students with documented special needs, a time extension can be arranged if requested at least ten days before the exam. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Exam format and grading ---------------------------------------------------------------- The exams format will be free-style. The student solves the problems on paper, in her/his own handwriting, then scans the pages (e.g. with a smartphone) into a single pdf file. The pdf file is then uploaded to Gradescope. (This takes a few steps, so please budget enough time for this.) Credit will be given only for valid, relevant, and well-explained solution steps. Just answers receive little to no credit. Students may use the textbook, class notes, and a basic calculator. Using other mathematical software or consulting other people is not permitted. The hope is that students can be trusted to respect these rules. Exams are Zoom sessions as well. Login via your UT Account. Guest logins will not be allowed. All participants must be connected with their video on. There will be short "interviews" during each exam with individual students (in Zoom breakout rooms). Be prepared to provide some basic information related to your work and testing environment. The aim is to avoid using remote-proctoring software. But if it looks necessary after grading an exam, then the use of Proctorio will be required for subsequent exams.