Math 241
(Last updated Monday, May 24 at 3:40pm)
Meetings
The first class meeting will be on Monday, February 1 at 1:40pm.
After the first week of class, we will use Monday's class time as an office hour meeting 1:40–2:40pm and we will have a live class session on Wednesdays 1:40–2:40pm.
All meetings will occur on Zoom (Zoom Link).
Materials
Textbook: Grinstead, Charles M. and Snell, J. Laurie. Introduction to Probability.
Solutions to odd-numbered problems in the Grinstead–Snell book
Optional Textbook: Ross, Sheldon. A First Course in Probability.
Online calculators: WolframAlpha, Symbolab
Contact: You can always reach me via email at nicholas.vlamis@qc.cuny.edu. I will generally respond within 24 hours.
Math Tutoring Lab: there will be some tutoring available for 241 this semester (see below for details).
Week 15 (5/17--5/21)
A short video discussing the Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem in context of continuous random variables.Please take a couple of minutes to submit an evaluation for the course.Week 14 (5/10--5/14)
Reading: Section 5.2 pages 205-206 and 212-214, Section 6.3 pages 268-274
Homework 13 --- Complete by Monday, May 17
Week 13 (5/3--5/7)
Introduction to the concept of conditional probability with continuous random variables and examples. Introduction to independence in continuous random variables.There was a significant typo on the first version of this quiz, so the deadline has been extended to compensate for my error. Homework 12 --- Complete by Monday, May 10
Week 12 (4/26--4/30)
Reading: Section 2.2 pages 55--68 (if interested, you can read Section 2.1 for more context).
Homework 11 --- Complete by Monday, May 3
A quick video discussing graphing two-variable inequalities if you need a reminder.
Week 11 (4/19--4/23)
A detailed example on how the Central Limit Theorem is used in polling.Video 2 --- Watch by Wednesday, April 21
Homework 10 --- Complete by Monday, April 26
Week 10 (4/12--4/16)
The central limit theorem.Using the table in Appendix A.Homework 9 --- Complete by Monday, April 19
Week 9 (4/5--4/9)
Reading: Section 6.2 and Section 8.1
Video 1 (Notes) --- Watch by Wednesday, April 7 *Ignore the comment about the exam at the beginning of the video: this was recorded last semester.
Homework 8 --- Complete by Monday, April 12
Week 8 (3/15--3/19)
Introduce the definition of expected value, go over a few properties, and compute expected value for several standard distributions.Continue with expectation. Homework 7 --- Complete by Monday, April 5
Week 7 (3/15--3/19)
An overview and introduction to several important discrete probability distributions, including the uniform distribution, binomial distribution, geometric distribution, and negative binomial distribution.Introduce the Poisson distribution. Homework 6 --- Complete by Monday, March 22
Week 6 (3/8--3/12)
A lot of students have had/are having exams around this time, so I am only going to post one video to make sure everyone can keep/catch up.
Reading: the subsection Bayes' Formula in Section 4.1.
Homework 5 --- Complete by Monday, March 15
Week 5 (3/1--3/5)
Reading: the Binomial Probabilities and Binomial Distribution subsections of Section 3.2.
Homework 4 --- Complete by Monday, March 8
Week 4 (2/22--2/26)
Reading: Section 4.1 (Do not read the subsections dealing with Baye's probability and Baye's formula, those are for next week).
Homework 3 --- Complete by Monday, March 1.
Week 3 (2/15--2/19)
Schedule Change Notice: The college is closed on Monday in observance of President's day. Office hours on Monday are cancelled, but Wednesday's class time will be treated as an office hour. Quiz 1 will be handed out on Wednesday at 3pm and will be due anytime on Friday. There is only one video for this week, since we would have lost a day during a regular in-person class.
Read the Poker Hands subsection of Section 3.2.
Homework 2 --- Complete by Monday, February 22.
Week 2 (2/8--2/12)
Read Section 1.2 pages 18--29. Makes sure to read the subsection labelled Odds. I won't go over this in class, but I expect you to know it.
Read Section 3.1 through subsection Permutations.
Many of the sections in the book end with a subsection entitled Historical Remarks. These subsections are never mandatory reading, but they are really interesting.
Homework 1 --- Complete by Wednesday, February 17
In case you are interested, here is a link to the Birthday Problem Calculator I used in class. It may be helpful on future exercises.
Week 1 (2/1--2/5)
Quiz 0 — Due Friday, February 5
Random Walk Video (Not Required)