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College Algebra and Analytic Geometry (pre-calculus), Fall 2014

Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites. Columbia College students do not receive any credit for this course and must see their CSA advising dean.

Textbook: James Stewart, Lothar Redlin, Saleem Watson Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus, 6th edition.

  • The textbook is available at the bookstore, but is available more cheaply directly from the publisher.
  • Some sections may use WebAssign.

Target Audience: This course is for students who wish to study calculus but do not know analytic geometry.

Course Topics:
The course covers most of the material in the first eight chapters in the textbook.

  • Properties of real numbers, exponents, linear and quadratic equations, coordinates (Chapter 1)
  • Functions, graphs and their properties, transforming functions (Chapter 2)
  • Polynomials, graphing polynomials, polynomial division, root finding, complex numbers, rational functions (Chapter 3)
  • Exponentials and logarithms (Chapter 4)
  • Trigonometry (Chapters 5 – 7)
  • Polar coordinates, as time permits (Chapter 8)

Calculus Director: Prof. Robert Lipshitz (lipshitz@math.columbia.edu)
Barnard Calculus Director: Prof. Dusa McDuff (dusa@math.columbia.edu)

Fall 2014 Pre-Calculus Sections:

Section Time Location Instructor E-mail Office
001 MW 6:10 – 8:05 pm Math 520 Paul Lewis pdlewis@math.columbia.edu Math 408
002 TR 12:30 – 2:25 pm Math 417 Jordan Keller keller@math.columbia.edu Math 408

Help Room Schedule: 333 Milbank Hall, Barnard Campus

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