| The course currently uses a custom edition of "Mathematics: A Practical Odyssey" by Johnson and Mowry. The full edition may be purchased and used in class, but students should know that the full edition may not match up well with the content and questions in the current text. This course will cover topics from Chapters 5, 7, 8, and 10.
The course has a number of topics that are often connected. The course covers finance ideas in depth, including simple and compound interest, annuities (both savings and payout), as well as loans (add-on interest and amortized) and savings for retirement including cost of living adjustments. These topics should be required for all students as student loan costs, credit cards, investing for retirement, mortgages, car loans, and many other topics will be encountered. Depending on the instructor, additional finance topics like taxes may be covered, as well as how the taxes relate to saving for retirement and even ways to link mortgage interest and other deductions. The actual cost of renting vs. owning a home could be covered as well.
A chapter on number theory allows students to see a progression of our number system as well as connections to many areas of mathematics including cryptography. Number patterns are included and linked to Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio.
Further chapters include geometry featuring standard 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and measurement of those shapes (perimeter, area, surface area, volume). There is a historical development of geometry included from Egyptian to Greek to present day; triangles are given special emphasis including right triangle trigonometry and extensions to conic sections (analytic geometry). Instructors may choose to further expand into topics such as non-Euclidean geometries and/or fractal geometry.
Exponential and logarithmic functions are covered including basic properties, exponential growth and decay, as well as logarithmic scales and applications. This final chapter connects through all the previous chapters with applications to finance, number theory, and geometry (especially fractal dimension).
This course is in the Math 105-106-107 sequence, and will fulfill the Bachelor of Science requirements (or possibly science group requirements), but the courses are not built upon one another and may be taken out of order. While the logic and deductive reasoning from Math 105 is helpful in this course, it is not emphasized. The goal of the course is to begin to think and reason mathematically in many different areas which is why formulas and memorization are not emphasized. Algebra and algebraic properties are extremely helpful and it is strongly advised that students have recently taken Math 095 Intermediate Algebra or an equivalent. A readiness quiz may be given the first week to determine your knowledge of the prerequisites and your math preparedness for the course. |
Prereqs/Comments: