Instructor: Lawrence Marx, Department of Mathematics, College of Letters and Science
Description: The course will cover topics related for the most part to famous solved and unsolved problems in mathematics. We will consider some famous problems from number theory, including Fermat's Last Theorem, and other problems such as the 4-color theorem, the continuum hypothesis, and the Riemann hypothesis. The course will discuss some of the basic mathematical ideas involved in these problems as well as the history of these problems. One of the main goals of the seminar is to make students aware that there are many problems in mathematics which are easily understood but which remain unsolved (or, in some cases, were solved only after years of effort by many individuals). Another goal of the course is to introduce the students to some new ideas in mathematics which they will hopefully find interesting, and which they may find useful in their future academic work.
Format: We will meet one hour per week for class, on Thursday afternoons from 1:10 to 2. Students will be asked to find information on the Web related to some of the topics we are studying, and in addition will be given a small number of homework problems to complete. Students will be required to have completed a course in pre-calculus, or at least have a good background in high school algebra. Grading: Grading for the course will be based on homework problems and reports of material found on the Web or in textbooks (50%), and class participation (50%). Grading will be on a Pass/No Pass basis.
About the Instructor: Dr. Marx has been a lecturer in the Mathematics Department at UC Davis for over 15 years, and he taught previously at LSU. He teaches mainly calculus and precalculus classes, but he has also taught classes in linear algebra, combinatorics, elementary number theory, probability, and other topics in mathematics.