FIRST DAY HANDOUT, M328K #55395
################################################################ COURSE AND SYLLABUS ################################################################ COURSE: M328K INTRO TO NUMBER THEORY (55395) Fall 2021 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 Lectures and exams will be in-person, except when the UT Administration decides to switch temporarily to online lectures for safety reasons. There may be some exceptions. Any change between in-person and online mode will be communicated to the students via Canvas announcements. All other 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 28 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 11:00am - 12:15pm in JGB 2.202 Lectures will be in-person, except when the UT Administration decides to switch in-person lectures to online lectures, for safety reasons. But there may be a few other exceptions. Any switch between in-person and online mode will be communicated to the students via Canvas announcements. In order to improve safety during the first 3 weeks, I recommend that students whose last name starts with A,B,...,Me only attend the in-person lectures on Tuesdays (and watch the recordings of the Thursday lectures), while students whose last name starts with Mi,...,N,...,Z only attend the in-person lectures on Thursdays (and watch the recordings of the Tuesday lectures). Attending the lectures or viewing the recordings is mandatory. Detailed lecture notes will be posted HERE one week in advance, together with a list of topics for the upcoming two lectures. The class lectures follow the lecture notes, on a somewhat more basic level than the notes, including summaries, previews, extra context, etc. You are encouraged to ask questions, including homework-related questions. In-person lectures in JGB 2.202 are recorded (voice and document camera) during the time period when, as recommended above, half of the class attends only the Tuesday lectures and the other half only the Thursday lectures. These recordings are made available in Canvas. Access is via the "Lectures Online" tab. For Zoom lectures, the Meeting ID (the same for all lectures) is posted on 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.) Access is via the "Zoom" tab, and from there "Cloud recordings". 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. ################################################################ 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 (the same for all office hours) is posted on Canvas. ################################################################ HOMEWORK ################################################################ 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. 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. The dates and times are listed below. The final exam is given during the official (default) time period. The location will be announced roughly 2 weeks before the final. The goal is to have exams in person, in JGB 2.202 for midterms. But since the entire class takes the exam at the same time, exams are more likely (than lectures) to be switched to Zoom. The mode (in-person or online) will be communicated to the students via Canvas announcements. For in-person exams, the problems will be handed out at the beginning, and the work will be collected at the end. All on paper, as usual. No notes or calculators are allowed. For online exams, the problem page will be accessible from within Zoom. 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. More information is given below. 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 "curve" will be made public after the exam is graded. The correspondence between number grades and letter grades is 93 -100 A 89 - 92 A- 85 - 88 B+ 81 - 84 B 77 - 80 B- 73 - 76 C+ 69 - 72 C 65 - 68 C- 61 - 64 D+ 57 - 60 D 53 - 56 D- 0 - 52 F Credit will be given mainly for valid, relevant, and comprehensible solution steps. Just answers receive little to no credit. The course grade is obtained via averaging from the number grades on the three exams and the homework. Midterm 1: Tue Sep 28, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm (weight 25%) Midterm 2: Thu Oct 28, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm (weight 25%) Final: Fri Dec 10, 9:00 am - 11:00 am (weight 35%) Homework: (weight 15%) No make-up exams are given, except in cases of documented illness or emergencies. For students with documented special needs, a time extension can be arranged if requested at least ten days before the exam. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Online 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.) 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. Online 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.