MATH 1003 COIN1: Precalculus
The study of functions and their properties. This includes an in-depth look at polynomials, rational, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions, and their applications. This course may not be used to satisfy major or minor Mathematics requirements. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.
Many students come to university without the prerequisite math courses or knowledge that they need in order to be admitted into the mathematics and statistics courses necessary for their program. MATH 1003 is a pre-calculus course. So, I assume that most people taking this course will go on and take a calculus course. Before I tell you what you will learn in this course, let's answer the question: "What is calculus?" Roughly speaking, calculus is the mathematics we use to analyze things that are changing. Scientists collect data. Mathematicians find formulas that describe this data. Then mathematics can be used to gain more insight about the data and the processes that are at work. We use calculus to determine how fast something is increasing or decreasing, where the maximum or minimum occurs, if the process is increasing at an increasing rate or a decreasing rate, how much change will take place after a certain amount of time and so on. The concepts in calculus are relatively simple. But solving the problems themselves is not so simple if you are not comfortable solving equations and manipulating expressions. It is a widely held opinion that the hardest thing about calculus is having the algebraic skill it takes to do the problems. Another prerequisite for calculus is to have the repertoire of functions used to describe the changing quantities of interest. The list is actually quite short. The functions that you need to understand are: the linear function, the quadratic function, the polynomials in general, power functions, trigonometric functions, exponential functions. Then there are the inverses of the trigonometric functions and the inverses of the exponential functions(which are logarithms). You will have the opportunity to strengthen your understanding of these topics by taking this course. You will probably have seen almost everything in your grade 11 and 12 math courses. Since you are choosing to invest your time (and money) in taking this course, I know that you are determined to be successful! I am on your side in this endeavor.
Instructor: Jim Pulsifer
Prerequisites: Permission from Instructor
Course Type: Online; Continuous-intake. Register anytime and learn at your own pace