Math 477 (Probability), Section 3, Fall 2017 (Rutgers University)

Last Update: Dec. 22, 2017

Textbook

Instructor

TA at Large

Mr. Huynh's Office Hours

Wed. 1-3pm, HLL 626 and Thurs. 12-1:30pm .

Times and Place

• MTh1 (Mondays and Thursdays, 8:40-10:00am) HLL(Busch Campus) 116

Free Tutoring (in lieu of office hour)

• Mondays 5:40-6:30pm, SEC 203

Additional Office Hour: Thursdays 12:00noon-1:00pm, Hill 704

CLASS POLICY (and grading method)

Answers to Homework Problems

Lecture Schedule

• Mandatory Preliminary Reading: Professor James Norris's beautiful essay on Probability Distributions [posted here by kind permison of the author].

• Th 9/7: Lecture 1. 1.1-1.5 Combinatorial Analysis
  homework 1 (due 9/21)
  Added Sept. 7, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 1 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• M 9/11: Lecture 2. 2. 2.1-2.4; What is Probability? Counting vs. Probability
  homework 2 (due 9/21)
  Added Sept. 11, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 2 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 9/14: Lecture 3. 2.5: Sample spaces having equally likely outcomes.
  homework 3 (due 9/21)
  Added Sept. 14, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 3 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• M 9/18: Lecture 4. 3.1-3.3: Conditional Probability and Independence; Bayes's Formula
  homework 4 (due 9/28)
  Added Sept. 18, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 4 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 9/21: Lecture 5. 3.4 : Independent events. Quiz 1 (On Lectures 1-3) homework 5 (due 9/28)
  Added Sept. 21, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 5 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Sept. 21, 2017: Here is real quiz 1 and here are the solutions to real quiz 1 .

• M 9/25: Lecture 6. . 4.1-4.3: Random Variables
  homework 6 (due 10/5)
  Added Sept. 25, 2017: Here is original attendance quiz 6 (that I forgot at home) and here are its solutions
  Here are its solutions to the "quiz" I made up on the board.

• Th 9/28: Lecture 7. . 4.4-4.5: Expectation and Variance. Quiz 2 (On Lectures 4-5)
  homework 7 (due 10/5)
  Added Sept. 28, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 7 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Sept. 28, 2017: Here is real quiz 2 and here are the solutions to real quiz 2.

• M 10/2: Lecture 8. 4.6: The Bernoulli and Binomial Random Variables
  homework 8 (due 10/12)
  Added Oct. 2, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 8 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 10/5: Lecture 9. 4.7: The Poisson Random Variable . Quiz 3 (On Lectures 6-7)
  homework 9 (due 10/12)
  Added Oct. 5, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 9 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Oct. 5, 2017: Here is real quiz 3 and here are the solutions to real quiz 3 .

• M 10/9: Lecture 10. 4.8: Other Discrete Probability Distributions; Linearity of Expectation
  homework 10 (due 10/19)
  Added Oct. 9, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 10 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 10/12: Lecture 11. 5.1-5.2: Continuous Random Variables; Their Expectation and Variance. Quiz 4 (On Lectures 8-9)
  homework 11 (due 10/26)
  Added Oct. 12, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 11 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Oct. 12, 2017: Here is real quiz 4 and here are the solutions to real quiz 4 .

• M 10/16: REVIEW.

• Th 10/19: EXAM 1 (On lectures 1-11)
  Added Oct. 19, 2017: Here is Exam 1 and here are the solutions to Exam 1.

  Added Oct. 22, 2017: Congratulations to the five students who aced exam 1 and got the full 100 points: Victor Chen,Rikab Gambhir, Yuxuan Ge, Zhixin Mao, and Ziou Zeng. Special congratulations to Rikab Gambhir who won a Pi T-shirt for the best-written exam.

• M 10/23: Lecture 12. 5.3-5.4: The Uniform Distribution and the Normal Distribution.
  homework 12 (due 11/2)    Z table
  Added Oct. 23, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 12 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  

• Th 10/26: Lecture 13. 5.5: The Exponential Distribution . Quiz 5 (On Lectures 10-11).
  homework 13 (due 11/2)
  Added Oct. 26, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 13 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Oct. 26, 2017: Here is real quiz 5 and here are the solutions to real quiz 5 .

• M 10/30: Lecture 14. 6.1: Joint Distribution Functions
  homework 14 (due 11/9)
  Added Oct. 30, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 14 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 11/2: Lecture 15. 6.2-6.3: Independent Random Variables and their Sums. Quiz 6 (On Lectures 12-13)
  homework 15 (due 11/9)
  Added Nov. 2, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 15 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Nov.2, 2017: Here is real quiz 6 and here are the solutions to real quiz 6 .

• M 11/6: Lecture 16. 6.4-6.5: Conditional Distributions
  homework 16 (due 11/16)
  Added Nov. 6, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 16 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Th 11/9: Lecture 17. 7.1-7.2: Expectation of Sums of Random Variables. Quiz 7 (On Lectures 14-15)
  homework 17 (due 11/16)
  Added Nov. 9, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 17 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Nov.9, 2017: Here is real quiz 7 and here are the solutions to real quiz 7 .

• M 11/13: Lecture 18. Probability Generating Functions; The Gambler's Ruin Problem.
  homework 18 (due 11/21)
  Added Nov. 13, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 18 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  

• Th 11/16: Lecture 19. 7.4: Covariance, Variance of Sums, and Correlations . Quiz 8 (On Lectures 16-17)
  homework 19 (due 11/21)
  Added Nov. 16, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 19 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz
  Also Added Nov.16, 2017: Here is real quiz 8 and here are the solutions to real quiz 8 .

• M 11/20: Lecture 20. 7.5: Conditional Expectation.
  homework 20 (due 11/27)
  Added Nov. 20, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 20 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz

• Tu 11/21: REVIEW . No quiz today. Quiz 9 (On Lectures 18-19) POSTPONED to 11/30)

• M 11/27: EXAM 2 (On lectures 1-19, with some emphasis on lectures 12-19) .
  Added Nov. 27, 2017: Here is Exam 2 and here are the solutions to Exam 2.

• Th 11/30: Lecture 21. 7.7: Moment Generating Functions.
  homework 21 (due 12/7) Quiz 9 (On Lectures 18-19)) [note change!]
  Added Nov. 30, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 21 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz.
  Also Added Nov.30, 2017: Here is real quiz 9 and here are the solutions to quiz 9.

• M 12/4: Lecture 22. 8.2: Chebyshev's Inequality and the Weak Law of Large Numbers.
  homework 22 (due 12/18)
  Added Dec. 4, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 22 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz.
  

• Th 12/7: Lecture 23. 8.3 and 8.4, The Central Limit Theorem and The Strong Law of Large Numbers.
  homework 23 (due 12/18) Quiz 10 (On Lectures 20 and 21)
  Added Dec. 7, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 23 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz.
  Also Added Nov.30, 2017: Here is real quiz 10 and here are the solutions to quiz 10.

• M 12/ 11: REVIEW.
  homework 24 (due 12/17, via Email to DrZprob at gmail dot com)
  Added Dec. 11, 2017: Here is attendance quiz 24 and here are the solutions to the attendance quiz.

• Th 12/14: 2:00pm-5:00pm (Optional, but strongly recommended) Marathon review, HLL 116 (the usual classroom).

Final:

• Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, 8:00-11:00am , in PH 111 (note room change)

Added Dec. 22, 2017: Congratulations to the top scorers on the Final Exam , who scored at least 190 points (out of 200):

• Victor Chen: 200
• Aaron Kau:200
• Charlotte Zuber: 195
• Wenjie Chen: 194
• Norman Hong: 194
• Rowen Kanj: 193
• Yuxuan Zhou: 193
• Judah Axelrod: 191
• Sining An: 190

Added Jan. 4, 2018: students' evaluations .