Week 6: Nonlinear models

Breaking news! It turns out the world isn't linear. Linear models are only so common because they are easy to work with, not because all things are actually linear. Lots of phenomena have more interesting behaviour, and for those we need non-linear models. This week we'll reacquaint ourselves with the big three: Quadratic, Exponential, and Sinusoidal.

This isn't a big question week about moose or corporations, it's a preparation week. A review-the-parts-we-need-from-Math-12/Precalc/Math 060 week. But it does lead to a rare skill that will impress your future colleagues: The ability to look at an equation and smoothly identify its family and sketch it, or to look at a plot (like the one above), and equally smoothly provide an equation to model it.

Since the week is largely review, use your time efficiently. There's a ton of (mostly brief) pencasts, because for some people Math 12 was a looong time ago. You on the other hand can (and should!) skip material you already know well. Perhaps start by looking at the Exercises and the Assignment to see what, if anything, you need to review.

There's no midterm!

(Some of you have been asking.)

Collaborate! Do research! Just don't copy.

A couple of you have asked how I feel about students working together. And some of you have looked up answers to the proof questions. I love both these things!

Working with other people can help you catch small errors you could get stuck on, suggest approaches that would not have occurred to you, and keep your spirits up. If you're stuck on a problem, e.g. a proof, turning to the web is a natural thing to do. The goal is for you to learn and come to an understanding of the course topics. If other people or other resources can help you do that then I'm all for it. Of course you shouldn't just copy someone else's work, because that wouldn't help you form an understanding. And you should acknowledge your sources when you've looked things up. But you already know that. 😏

The dog ate it

I had a minor but time-consuming hardware issue, so I don't have the entire week's material posted for this morning.😔 The full Monday installment is in place, and all the Exercises and the Assignment are posted, and the supplementary resources for the Wednesday and Friday material are also quite complete, so there should be enough for you to do while I get caught up.

Always tweaking

This week's tweaks.

• I've inserted Monday, Wednesday, Friday headings to break up the wall of material, and show the pace at which we would be moving in class.
• I've moved the supplementary material and exercises to the end of each day to make it easier to know what they depend on.
• I'll be sending updates via email to those who indicated they'd prefer that. If you'd like to receive them by email too let me know and I'll add you to the list.
• I'll still post updates to the discussion forum for those who prefer that, but they'll all go in the general announcements thread. No more individual forums for exercises and assignments since they were mostly sitting empty. This way there will be just one place to look.

Office Hours: Get help, or just come by to say "Hi"

I'll be in my Zoom "office" again this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. I hope you'll come by at some point with your questions or just to say hi.

That's all for now!

Stay well and stay in touch,
Tim