Week  Zero

2019/2020

Information on Mathematics degrees

maths



Introduction and Welcome to Mathematics
is on Monday 9th September 2019  at 10.00
in room 2.01 the Postgraduate Centre

People will be around to point you in the right direction

It is essential you attend this meeting.

In it, I shall outline your first-year as a mathematics student at Heriot-Watt and provide you with important information such as your timetable and the name of your personal tutor. In addition, I shall be in my office the rest of the day if you have any questions or problems.

[If for some reason you are unable to attend this meeting (such as waiting for a visa) please contact the School Office to let them know.]

Handout


Useful Links
 

Maps https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/edinburgh/map.htm

Building names What's that building?

Personal tutors You will be told the time and place of your first meeting with your personal tutors during the first induction meeting

Tutorials  Unless you are told by a lecturer differently, tutorials start in week 2.

Changing programmes/courses Changing programmes is difficult at this stage but ask me anyway. Changing courses is possible within the first week or so but then becomes very difficult. The message is: if you have any doubts talk to me now and don't leave it.

Emails Please ensure that your University email address works. All communications between the Department and you will only use this address. If you are still having problems, please contact IT support (below) or the helpdesk.

Approved calculators for exams Calculators

Useful links

If you have any questions or experience any difficulties during the first couple of weeks then don't hesitate to contact me

Books


Maths books for reading

And other books by these authors.

First year textbooks

None of the books listed below is an essential purchase, and  you will be provided with copious lecture notes by the lecturers.
Check out the library first and buy those books that you find useful (if possible second hand).

So, why should you read maths books?
  1. There are different ways of thinking about different topics; your lecturer will choose one, but maybe another approach will suit you better.
  2. To learn maths you need to practise it --- this means trying to work through lots of problems. Your lecturer will provide you with many such problems and their solutions but it is not their job to provide you with arbitrary many such problems. This is where university differs from school --- you are expected to fill in the gaps for yourself.
  3. You may find new ideas or interesting examples in a book not mentioned by the lecturer. 

C. McGregor, J. Nimmo, W. Sothers, Fundamentals of university mathematics, 3rd Revised Edition,  Woodhead Publishing Ltd, 2010.

A solid book that is a useful reference for all first year mathematics courses including An introduction to university mathematics and Calculus A and B.

A. Hirst, D. Singerman, Basic algebra and geometry, Prentice Hall, 2000.

This contains a lot of the material covered in An introduction to university mathematics.

D. Easdown, A first course in linear algebra, 2nd Edition, Pearson, Education Australia.

I always recommend this book to students who have trouble with vectors in An introduction to university mathematics

M. Liebeck, A concise introduction to pure mathematics, 3rd Edition, CRC Press,  2010.

This contains material covered in An introduction to university mathematics as well as discussing the foundations of calculus.

However, a real find is the following

Richard Hammack, Book of proof, available here for free.

This is just what the doctor ordered for getting to grips with basic logic and the idea of proof.

The above books can be read and worked through.
Books useful particularly for worked examples and practice questions are the Schaum Outline Series.
The books in the series particularly relevant to first year maths are: Calculus, Linear algebra (first three chapters only), Discrete Maths, Differential equations (first ten chapters or so of the book). 




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