Syllabus

General Course Info

Instructor

Samuel Tripp
Office: 216 Kemeny Hall
Email: samuel.w.tripp.gr@dartmouth.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:15-1:05 PM (in Kemeny 008), Wednesday 2:45-4 PM (in Kemeny 121); additional hours TBD. 

Textbook

Introduction to Probability by Laurie Snell and Charles Grinstead (free online; or ISBN-13: 978-0821807491)
Supplemented by: Lecture Notes to Introductory Probability Links to an external site. by Janko Gravner

Lectures

Lectures will be in person in Kemeny 008, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:30 AM to 12:35 PM. The topic, relevant sections of the book, and any additional materials for each lecture can be found on the Daily Materials page. We will not use x-hour in general, but I will hold office hours during this time (in Kemeny 008). 

Graded Content

Weekly Homework

Each Wednesday at 5 PM there will be weekly homework assigned. The homework will be due the following Wednesday at 5 PM. It will consist of a few problems working through the main ideas of lectures that week. One weekly homework will be dropped, no questions asked, but because of this, late homework will not be accepted. 

I strongly recommend you learn to use LaTeX Links to an external site.. It makes writing math meaningfully easier, especially when (as in this class) your proofs are expected to be written out in sentences and paragraphs.

Midterms

We will have two weeklong, take-home midterms. They will take the place of the weekly homework in the week they are assigned, although they will be slightly longer and more comprehensive. They will be assigned April 20th and May 11th, and due April 27th and May 18th, respectively. Your midterms are combined worth 35% of your grade; the one you do better on is worth 20% and the other, 15%. 

Final

The final will also be a weeklong, take-home exam. Tentatively, it will be assigned May 31st, and due Monday, June 6th, at 5 PM. This is the last time at which I can accept final exams, so extensions can unfortunately not be granted. These dates are subject to change. 

Final Project

There will be a final project, details for which can be found on the Final Project page. The final project proposal will be worth 5% of your grade and the final project will be worth 10% of your grade. 

Active Learning

Five assignments will each be worth 1%, and are completion graded. These will be introductory meetings, intro and exit surveys, and midterm wrappers. 

Participation

Participating in synchronous activities is worth 5% of your grade this term. Your grade is the number of weeks in which I interacted with you in any synchronous way (came to class, office hours, individual meeting), divided by two and rounded up. 

Class Policies

The Honor Principle

Academic integrity is at the core of our mission as mathematicians and educators, and we take it very seriously. We also believe in working and learning together.

On all homework, collaboration is permitted and encouraged. When you write up your solutions, you should not be looking at any other student's work; you are welcome to work through problems with others, but should not be copying their work down off the board or their paper. Your answers should be in your own words. On each assignment, list the names of any student you worked with in any capacity.

Our exams will not be collaborative. Specific resources that can be used on exams will be written in the instructions for the exam; any resource not specifically named cannot be used on that exam.

For more information about the Dartmouth Academic Honor Principle, see here.

Special Considerations

Students with disabilities who may need disability-related academic adjustments and services for this course are encouraged to see me privately as early in the term as possible. Students requiring disability-related academic adjustments and services must consult the Student Accessibility Services office (Carson Hall, Suite 125, 646-9900). Once SAS has authorized services, students must show the originally signed SAS Services and Consent Form and/or a letter on SAS letterhead to their professor. As a first step, if students have questions about whether they qualify to receive academic adjustments and services, they should contact the SAS office. All inquiries and discussions will remain confidential.

Formal Course Description

Our capacity to fathom the world around us hinges on our ability to understand quantities which are inherently unpredictable. Therefore, in order to gain more accurate mathematical models of the natural world we must incorporate probability into the mix. This course will serve as an introductions to the foundations of probability theory. Topics covered will include some of the following: (discrete and continuous)random variable, random vectors, multivariate distributions, expectations; independence, conditioning, conditional distributions and expectations; strong law of large numbers and the central limit theorem; random walks and Markov chains. There is an honors version of this course: see MATH 60 Links to an external site..

Statement concerning recording of classes

(1) Consent to recording of course and group office hours 

1. a) I affirm my understanding that this course and any associated group meetings involving students and the instructor, including but not limited to scheduled and ad hoc office hours and other consultations, may be recorded within any digital platform used to offer remote instruction for this course; 
2. b) I further affirm that the instructor owns the copyright to their instructional materials, of which these recordings constitute a part, and distribution of any of these recordings in whole or in part without prior written consent of the instructor may be subject to discipline by Dartmouth up to and including expulsion;
3. b) I authorize Dartmouth and anyone acting on behalf of Dartmouth to record my participation and appearance in any medium, and to use my name, likeness, and voice in connection with such recording; and 
4. c) I authorize Dartmouth and anyone acting on behalf of Dartmouth to use, reproduce, or distribute such recording without restrictions or limitation for any educational purpose deemed appropriate by Dartmouth and anyone acting on behalf of Dartmouth.

 (2) Requirement of consent to one-on-one recordings 

By enrolling in this course, I hereby affirm that I will not under any circumstance make a recording in any medium of any one-on-one meeting with the instructor without obtaining the prior written consent of all those participating, and I understand that if I violate this prohibition, I will be subject to discipline by Dartmouth up to and including expulsion, as well as any other civil or criminal penalties under applicable law.