FYSE  1176: DISCOVERING INFINITY

Fall 2006

Course Title:  Discovering Infinity

Catalog Description: Infinity" has intrigued poets, artists, philosophers, musicians, religious thinkers, physicists, astronomers, and mathematicians throughout the ages.  Beginning with puzzles and paradoxes that show the need for careful definition and rigorous thinking, students will examine the idea of infinity within mathematics, discovering their own theorems and proofs about the infinite. Our central focus is the evolution of the mathematician's approach to infinity, for it is here that the concept has its deepest roots and where our greatest understanding lies. In the final portion of the course, we will consider representation of the infinite in literature and the arts.

Course Website:          http://f06.middlebury.edu/FYSE1176A/

Prerequisites: Any student with four years of secondary school mathematics, including some study of calculus, will feel comfortable in this seminar.

Distribution   Requirements: Completion of this course will satisfy the DED (deductive reasoning and analytical processes) or PHL (philosophical and religious studies) distribution requirements.

Instructor: Michael Olinick, 314 Warner, telephone extension: 5559. Home Phone: 388-4290. Office  Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30 to Noon, Tuesday and Thursday from 11 AM to 1 PM.  I have other classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons so I am generally  not available then. I would be happy to make an appointment to see you at other  mutually convenient times.

Academic  Consultant  for  Excellence (ACE):        ACEs are students trained by the Director of Learning Resources to assist new students in developing and enhancing important skills such as time management and semester workload planning, selected study skills , stress management and optimum performance and more. Our ACE is Lia Ball,Õ07 (extension 6056, Box  2183, kball@middlebury.edu) YouÕll have an opportunity to meet her soon.

Lia Ball

Librarian  and  Educational Technologist:          Although any of the reference staff  can assist you with learning to use the many resources of the collegeÕs libraries, Bryan Carson  has been designated to work with our seminar. (http://community.middlebury.edu/~bcarson/cv/cv.html).  David Guertin is the educational technologist assigned to our class. Bryan and David will conduct a workshop for us on Thursday, September 21 in Room 105 of the Library. They will provide an orientation to computers and the library.

Class Meeting Times:     Tuesday and Thursday from  9:30 to 10:45 AM  in Warner 506.

Textbooks: There are three required books:

               Aczel, Amir, The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity, New York: Washington Square Press, 2000. QA 9.A236 2000

               ( SPECIAL NOTE:  the author, Amir Aczel, will be visiting our seminar on Tuesday, November 27 and will be giving a public lecture that afternoon. There will also be a dinner for us with Dr. Aczel t McKinley House. Mark your calendars! )

            Maor, Eli, To Infinity and Beyond : A Cultural History of the Infinite, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.  QA9 .M316 1987

            Stoppard, Tom,  Jumpers, New York, Grove Press., 1972. PR 6069.T6 J8 1974.

                

            I also strongly recommend that you purchase a guide to good writing and research paper preparation. I recommend

               John Ruskiewicz,  Maxine Hairston, and Christy Friend , SF Express (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall.

            You may purchase each of these books  now in the College Store, which is on the ground floor of Proctor Hall. (The texts for your other courses will not  be available for purchase until Monday, September 11 where they will be sold in Lower Proctor just across from the Brainerd Commons office). I urge you to buy the books for our seminar before the weekend.

            I have placed a copy of each of the required books on reserve in the College Library. There will be other readings in the course that will be on reserve.

Requirements:       There will be two midterm  tests, a final  examination and a term paper/project. There will also be numerous shorter papers and very frequent student presentations. Tentative dates for the midterm tests are Tuesday, October 10 and Tuesday,, November 14.  The College Scheduling Officer has set the date and time of the final examination to be Saturday, December 16 from 9 AM to Noon.


            One of the essential characteristics of college life that distinguishes it from   secondary school is the increased responsibility placed on you for your own education. Most of what you will learn will not be told to you by a teacher inside a classroom. Even if our model of you were an empty vessel waiting passively to be filled with information and wisdom, there wouldnÕt be time enough in our daily meetings to present and explain it all. We see you, more appropriately, as an active learner ready to confront aggressively the often times subtle and difficult ideas our courses contain. You will need to listen and to read carefully, to master concepts by wrestling with numerous examples and problems, and to ask thoughtful questions.

Comments:              This course is highly experimental, both in  terms of content and structure.  I want to maintain the flexibility to respond to student needs and interests, so please give me your comments and suggestions and be prepared for occasional modifications in the class schedule.