Q: I really really need to get into this class. Can you make an exception for me?
A: I'd like to, but this class has strict size limits due to the number of computers.
Keep trying TRACS, which is the only way you can get enrolled - unless you are a
senior scheduled to graduate at the end of this semester, in which case you may talk
to Dr. John Griggs (jrgriggs@pams.ncsu.edu)
in HA 255. By a couple of weeks into the term, there have in the past usually been
enough drops that people can add the class through TRACS. You are encouraged to attend
class till you get in, but please understand that registered students have first
priority on computers. Only registered students will be able to access the homework
assignments on WebAssign.
Q: I was on the waitlist till this morning, when the waitlist disappeared. Can I still get in to the class?
A: The Cashier's office purges all the waitlists right before classes begin, so
they know what to charge you. However, you can still try to get in, but it isn't
convenient. You just have to keep trying TRACS during the Add period and nagging
the other students to drop if they aren't going to take the class. (I nag them too.)
Most people eventually do get in. It is important to keep coming to class while you
are trying to get in.
Q: I finally got into MA 132 but I can't get at the WebAssign homework.
A: You will be automatically added to the WebAssign list at midnight. WebAssign
only gets its class lists from TRACS once a day.
Q: I added late. Can I get an extension on the first assignment?
A: No. We built the extra assignments in for this reason.
Q: I wasn't able to sign the attendance in class because there weren't enough computers. Can I still get credit for it?
A: The attendance assignment is only available on Webassign during class meeting
times. To find out how much attendance counts towards your grade, read the class
grading policy again. Attendance is taken so that we can know who is coming to class
and who is not, so please do make your best effort to sign in each day.
Q: Do we hand in the "Possible Homework"?
A: No. Those are just there as a service to professors elsewhere who are teaching
this course and who might want to assign different HW. You should hand in the Actual
Homework, which is only found on WebAssign.
Q: I can't make the office hours.
A: Call or send email. The professor and/or the TA can usually (not always) work
you in. There are also tutors in Ha 244.
check the schedule and see who is familiar with MA 132.
Q: Can I get an extension on the HW? There were server problems with WebAssign.
A: Sorry you were experiencing server problems, but there will be no extensions.
To avoid running into this problem in the future, be sure to work on your assignment
earlier than Friday afternoon. Typically if there are WebAssign server problems,
they are very short-lived (less than 5 minutes!) except for Friday afternoons,
when everyone and everyone's roommate is trying to use WebAssign at the same time.
Plan ahead!
Q: I added late. Can I get an extension on the first assignment?
A: No. We built the extra assignments in for this reason. In MA 132 there are
no extensions.
Q: I blew off the class for several weeks, and now I find that I'm going to get a bad grade in the class. Can I get extra credit?
A. No. Try explaining to the hundreds of people who didn't blow off the
class why you should get special treatment.
Q: I don't have Excel on the computers in HA 269.
A: Some of the computers in HA 269 are Macs, some run Linux, and some run Unix.
On the Linux machines, Excel is accessed just like we access it on the laptops in
class. If you can't see Excel on a PC it's because of a problem with the Application
Launcher. If you are on a Unix machine, you need to type in one of the xterm windows
the phrase "add office" (no quotes), hit return, and then the word Excel
(capital E). As of last year, however, the Unix machines may no longer have Excel.
Q: I can't do the work from home.
A: The software you'll need to do all the class assignments from home and read
all the materials includes Windows, Excel, Maple, Acrobat Reader, and a web browser
(and internet service). There are ways to get around most of these requirements if
you are clever - or you can work on campus in any of the labs.
Q: I can't get Solver in Excel. It's not there.
A: You need to go to Tools -> Add-Ins, scroll down, and click on Solver. Then
it will be there under the Tools menu. If it's not there under Add-Ins, find a different
computer!
Q: I can't save to my Home drive!
A: The first thing you should try is launching the application "Mount My
EOS/Unity Drive" also known as KAUTH. It will ask for your password again. If
that doesn't work, sometimes there is a network problem such that the PC can't
find your K: drive (Unity directory). Depending on the lab you use, your Home directory
may be the Y: drive if you are in Ha 314, the K: if you are in G108, or it may save
to the home by default if you are on the unix machines. This is annoying! You have
a few alternatives: (1) If you have a floppy with you, save to the floppy; (2) Print
out what you did and type it in again; (3) Save your file on the PC, and then email
yourself, with the file as an attachment; (4) Finish the assignment, save your file
on the PC, download it into Webassign, and if you are all done, at least Webassign
has its copy, even if you don't.
Q: I can't get the % sign to work in Maple.
A: Make sure that when you are using the % sign to mean "the last thing I hit return on," you have really just hit return on it, and haven't been jumping around hitting return in other places. One way to check this is to start at the top of your worksheet and just hit return-return-return... until you get to the end of everything.
Another potential difficulty is that if your computer is using an old version
of Maple, the symbol for "the last thing entered" is not %, but "
(double-quote mark).
Q: Maple is giving me garbage.
A: Check your syntax very carefully! Common errors include:
Q: I hate Maple.
A: Maple is new to you. You have been using Excel for years. It probably was hard
the first time you used a word processor or drove a car, but you're probably glad
to have such a powerful tool available to you.
Q: When I tried to submit my homework, WebAssign would not take my Excel Spreadsheet attachment.
A: I'm fairly certain that the reason that it wouldn't take your attachment is because of the way you named it. The lesson expressly asks you to name the file lesson1.xls. The file name that you have has a (') in it which is a problem. In the future, name the file as the homework requests and you should not run into this problem.
However, it could be that when you clicked the "Browse" button that
you could not find your file. You went to the C: drive but the file was not
listed. If this was the case, make sure that the pull-down menu of the box
that pops up says All Files *.* and not HTML Files *.htm*. This is a
common confusion and is not something that we can control.
Q: When we are "sending in" our spreadsheets and charts, I know we are saving it on the K: drive, but does it have to be done in the same lab that we have class in or any other particular lab? Or can we do it from any other computer in any lab on campus as long as it's saved on the K: drive? I guess I'm just a little confused--if the K: drive is supposed to be our personal disk space, how are you able to get to it without using our passwords?
A: In reality it doesn't matter if it is on your K: drive, a disk drive, your C: drive, or anywhere else that you happen to put it. You can work from home, from a dorm room, from the local public library, or anywhere else that you might have internet access.
What happens is that when you "submit" the file, it is actually just making a copy of the file and attaching it to the homework. It works exactly the same way as if you were sending someone an email attachment. They don't need access to the location where the original document is, just access to the location where the copy is (in this case the copy is saved to the WebAssign database).
No, I can't get in and see your personal files if that is what you were worried
about :)
Q: Webassign would only allow me to submit one file, but you asked us to submit two tables and two graphs.
A: If you have more than one thing to show us for your HW, you can make multiple
tables and graphs in one spreadsheet, or you can
make multiple spreadsheets in your file. To see the other spreadsheets that already
exist in your Excel file, click on the gray tabs near the bottom that say Sheet1,
Sheet2, etc.
Q: When the homework asks "what is the formula" what am I expected to type in?
A: If, say, you are asked for a formula with the single variable x, then if the
mathematical model is something like, say, f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c, and you know that
a = 3 and b = 5 and c = 2, then what you should type into Webassign for f(x) is 3*x^2+5*x+2.
You should not type in a*x^2+b*x+c, but use numbers for a, b, and c.
Q: I thought I understood the lesson, but Webassign is grading it wrong.
A: I looked at your answers, and they do look pretty reasonable. But the problem is they are not exactly correct. The numbers are a little off.
If you have a parameter value, say, for k, and it is given to you as a fraction,
say 1/15, DO NOT ROUND IT IN YOUR CALCULATIONS. Do not type 0.07, type 1/15. This
goes for Maple and for Excel. It's not a computer thing, it's a math thing. If you
round a number off and then do some operations on it (squaring it, exponentiating,
whatever) you have introduced some error. Often those errors will get pretty large!
Q: I typed in ex, but Webassign is grading it wrong.
A: Your answer ex was mathematically correct, but you typed it in a way that Webassign can't understand. As I clearly warned in the reading, and as you can clearly see in the online Webassign hint "Symbolic," virtually no computer program understands e^x as an exponential, whereas just about all computer programs that handle numbers understand exp(x). This goes for Maple, Excel, and WebAssign in particular. It's like not typing commas in large numbers. To get a computer (or a person) to understand you, you have to speak in a language it understands.
Q: I don't understand any of this, since I was never any good at math.
A: It's not as if there are two kinds of people in the world, those who "can
do math" and those who "can't." If this is hard for you, the first
thing you should try is reading the words more slowly and systematically.
You may find that you are simply not allowing enough focused time to do the work,
or psyching yourself out before you begin. Would you give up on an English class,
saying, "I can't understand this. I was never any good at reading."? It
is true that some people read more effectively and efficiently than others, but it's
an important skill for everybody, so you push yourself until you do get it. It's
the same with math.
Q: I don't understand any of this, since I took Calculus so long ago.
A: Most of what we're doing isn't calculus! What we are doing that is hard
for a lot of people is applying previously-learned math concepts to real-world
problems. (OK, some of the problems are fictional, but they could just as well be
real.) This action requires you to use several parts of your brain simultaneously,
specifically the verbal and the visual and the analytical, not
to mention a bit of hand-eye coordination with the mouse. Making those connections
can at first feel uncomfortable, but the goal of this course is to help you use
the math you've learned.
Q: I hate Maple.
A: Maple is new to you. You have been using Excel for years. It probably was hard
the first time you used a word processor or drove a car, but you're probably glad
to have such a powerful tool available to you.
Q: Why are there never enough computers in class?
A: I'd like to know that myself, and believe me, we have been working on it! It's frustrating for all of us. Some of it is budgets, some of it is security, and some of it is software and networking. Questions about the computing environment can be addressed directly to:
Questions about HA 314 or G108: pco@pams.ncsu.edu
General questions: help@ncsu.edu
Q: I don't get the difference between a difference equation and a differential equation.
A: Here is a long explanation.
Q: I don't understand any of this, since I was never any good at math.
A: It's not as if there are two kinds of people in the world, those who "can
do math" and those who "can't". If this is hard for you, the first
thing you should try is reading the words more slowly and systematically.
You may find that you are simply not allowing enough focused time to do the work,
or psyching yourself out before you begin. Would you give up on an English class,
saying, "I can't understand this. I was never any good at reading."? It
is true that some people read more effectively and efficiently than others, but it's
an important skill for everybody, so you push yourself until you do get it. It's
the same with math.
Q: I don't understand any of this, since I took Calculus so long ago.
A: Most of what we're doing isn't calculus! What we are doing that is hard for a lot of people is applying previously-learned math concepts to real-world problems. (OK, some of the problems are fictional, but they could just as well be real.) This action requires you to use several parts of your brain simultaneously, specifically the verbal and the visual and the analytical, not to mention a bit of hand-eye coordination with the mouse. Making those connections can at first feel uncomfortable, but the goal of this course is to help you use the math you've learned.