Thursdays, 4:30 - 6:50 Miller 302

Heads up! On Thursday, November 4 there will be a SuperProblem set. You will be given a couple of problems to work on as a class (with me not helping). Once you have all helped eah other to an understanding of them, you will each silently write up your own solution. The problems will be designed to use a fair amount of what we have been working on so far.

for Thursday, October 21: Read section 4 of the book chapter, and work all the problems. Turn in careful write-ups of five that you found challenging (not necessarily ones that you feel secure about -- writing carefully where you are with one that you got stuck partway through is completely acceptable.)

for Thursday, October 28: Read section 8 of the book chapter and proceed as you did last week for section 4.
Also finish the worksheet on dice and independence that was handed out in class.

ALSO read the writing assignments and project descriptions at the end of the chapter and think about what might make a project topic that would be interesting and challenging and worth the time you spend on it. In addition to the ones in the book, I suggest looking for medical or legal situations where proabability has been, or habitually is, used in making decisions (used either well or ill). Or you can analyze a game of one sort or another -- though my experience has been that apart from craps any game worth its salt is pretty complex to analyze, with more computation than most folks really groove on.


by TUESDAY, November 2, send me a sketch of what you are thinking of doing by way of a project.

for Thursday, November 4, read §7 of the book. Skip example 3 (it uses material from the sections we have skipped). Turn in problems 1 - 14 and 21 - 24.


for Thursday, November 18
Read the photocopied article from the Bostonia journal that I gave you in class. Take notes on points that strike you, in preparation for a class discussion of it.
Also, carry out some version of the experiment described in Sidebar C (a variant of the Monty Hall problem) at least once, and preferably more than once with different participants. Write up the results of your endeavors.

As I suggested in my last e-mail, I have decided officially to expand the Project options to include reading something. I handed out some options on Thursday and mentioned some others (and I am sure that there are yet others that would be more than acceptable.) If you opt for reading, your assignment is
1) Get together with anyone else reading the same book and coordinate your reporting efforts.
2) Prepare to tell the class something about the book. It can (probably should) include a sketch of the outline of the book, but most of your reporting time should be spent on one topic or challenging example or major point that you agree with (or don't) or something along those lines.
3) Your report should include something from the reading that you think could be used to convince somebody on the street (or maybe just in another class with you) that Probability is something we live, not just something that exists in a classroom.

You will also turn in something written. The default is that you turn in a written version of what you say, but if you have a more interesting idea of what you would like to write, by all means check it out with me.