MAT 6932/4930 — Further Topics in Differential Geometry, I
Fall 2015
Last updated Mon Nov 30 22:31 EST 2015
Even when homework is well-written, reading and grading it is very time-consuming and physically difficult for your instructor. Please do not make this process more burdensome than it intrinsically needs to be. So:
- The homework you hand in must be neat, and must either be typed (in which cased TeX or LaTeX is preferred) or written in pen (not pencil!), on white paper. Please do not turn homework that is messy or that has anything that’s been erased and written over (or written over without erasing), making it harder to read. If you are writing on both sides of a sheet of paper, do not use paper/ink combinations for which the ink bleeds through from one side of the paper to the other. Anything that is difficult for me to read will be returned to you ungraded.
- Leave enough space for me to write comments. This includes leaving AMPLE MARGINS (at least 1.25″) at the top and bottom and left- and right-hand sides of the page, as well as space between problems.
- Staple the sheets together in the upper left-hand corner. Any other means of attachment makes more work for me. The staple should be close enough to the corner that when I turn pages, nothing that you’ve written is obscured. (If you have trouble stapling this way, you haven’t left wide enough margins at the left side and/or top of the page, and should rewrite your homework.) Also, don’t use paper that’s been ripped out of a spiral-bound notebook; it will make a mess on my floor.
- Write in complete, unambiguous, grammatically correct, and correctly punctuated sentences, just as you would find in (most) math journals and textbooks.
- Warn me about partial proofs. If a problem is of the form “Prove this” and you’ve been unable to produce a complete proof, but want to show me how far you got, tell me at the very start of the problem that your proof is not complete (before you start writing any part of your attempted proof). Do not just start writing a proof, and at some point say “This is as far as I got.” Otherwise, when I start reading I will assume that you think you’ve written a complete and correct proof, and spend too long thinking about, and writing comments on, false statements and approaches or steps that were doomed to go nowhere.
Also, I think the following points should be self-evident, and I apologize to anyone who agrees that they’re self-evident and is offended by my saying them. But past experience has taught me that I need to say them explicitly, even in 6000-level classes:
- I assign homework problems because I want you to figure them out, not to send you on a treasure-hunt through the literature. If I limit myself to assigning problems that I think are unlikely to have solutions somewhere in some book, you will not be getting the best education I can give you. When I know that something is a worthwhile problem for you to work on, and even struggle with, I don’t want to have to worry about whether a solution exists in some textbook.
That does not mean you are forbidden ever to look at textbooks. But solutions to homework problems should be your own. If you find yourself looking at a textbook while you are writing up a solution, that solution is not your own.
- You should first try all the problems yourself (alone). After attempting the problems, you may brainstorm with other students in the class for general ideas, but you may not completely work out problems together. You are also not permitted to split the workload with other students, with each student in a group writing up some solutions that all group-members hand in, or that all group-members work from in writing up what they’re going to hand in.
Academic honesty. On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is implied:
- “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.”
You should first try all the problems yourself (alone). After attempting the problems, you may brainstorm with other students in the class for general ideas, but you may not completely work out problems together.
For purposes of preparing your hand-in homework, no aid that involves anything but your own brain, your textbook, your notes, and any handouts from me, is authorized. The “no aid” restriction doesn’t apply until I have announced the hand-in date for a given problem. Up until that announcement, you’re allowed to work with each other, look at other textbooks, ask me for help, etc.
- Assignment 1. Hand in only problems 1 and 2. Due date: Friday 9/11/15.
- Assignment 2. Hand in only problems 1, 2a, 3. Due date: Friday 10/2/15.
- Assignment 3. Hand in only problems 1 and 2. Due date: Wednesday 10/28/15.
- Assignment 4. Hand in only problems 1a, 3 (all parts), 7a. Due date: Wednesday 12/9/15. In writing up each problem or problem-part, you may assume the results of all earlier problems or problem-parts on this assignment.