Students wishing a more complete treatment of multivariable calculus, including integration and vector calculus (which are important in the physical sciences) should take the full-semester course Math 121.
Math 117 is targeted primarily at two audiences. First, it is appropriate for students who enter Haverford with a substantial background in calculus, but not enough to place directly into multivariable calculus Math 121 (e.g., a strong performance in an AB calculus course in high school). Students in this category will naturally pair Math 117 with Math 116. Second, Math 117 may be taken as a follow-up to the half-semester integral calculus course Math 114. Math 117 is a particularly good follow-up to Math 114 for students interested in economics or chemistry, who do not plan to take the full multivariable calculus course Math 121. Arrangements can be made to take Math 121 after Math 117, but a full credit and a half will not be granted for this combination. Math 117 is adequate preparation for many 200-level math courses, including Math 203, 204, 210, 215, and 222.
Prerequisites: Math 114 or placement
Who should take this course?
Students with a good background in limits, derivatives, and integrals, but not placing into Math 121.
Students looking for a half-semester course to follow the half-semester Math 114, and with applied interests
Topics covered:
Vectors, dot products, equations of planes
Graphs and level curves of functions of two variables
Partial derivatives and their use in solving unconstrained optimization problems
Differentials
Gradients and directional derivatives
Chain Rule in several variables
Taylor polynomials in several variables
Geometry underlying optimization: first and second derivative tests for local maxima and minima
Least squares fitting
Lagrange multipliers for constrained optimization
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This page maintained by jtecosky@haverford.edu. Last updated 9/1/99