Mathematics Applicants 2012

Original post by ben-smith

your turn to ask me a question :biggrin:

Here you go :smile:

:

Find the value of

\frac{100^{2}}{100!}+ \sum_{n=1}^{100}|n^{2}-3n+1|S_{n}

, where

S_{n}

is a G.P. with first term

\frac{n-1}{n!}

and common ratio

\frac{1}{n}

The question is quite fiddly/long, not anything neat as your one, but its the closest to a suitable series Q I could find. "Should" be quite straightforward (especially for you!).

(I am terrible with Latex, so there could be an error btw...)

Reply 923

anyone_can_fly

11

Original post by ben-smith

I think the key is that you understand and are comfortable with the maths in those modules rather than being able to reel off loads of formulae so that you are able to apply the concepts to unfamiliar situations. For example, how would you go about finding:

\displaystyle\sum_{i=1}^nir^i

?
There are two ways which use C2 knowledge. As it goes, I have used this alot in STEP probability questions.

On a separate note:
Do people know the difference a BA and a Bsc. Leicester offers both http://www.le.ac.uk/ugprospectus/courses/mathematics/mathematics.html :s-smilie:

Also, spending a year in the USA is looking tempting.

I think you misunderstood. I'm from Scotland, and don't do A-levels. I know that there are things in the English syllabus that aren't in the Scottish (your circles theorems at GCSE don't exist in Scotland, for example) and I was trying to find a way to learn these topics. :smile:

Original post by dnumberwang

Anyone else applying for Oxbridge but not Warwick, or are anyone_can_fly and I the only ones?
:yy:

Still not completely sure about it though, I mean it's an extra year of fees :dontknow:

Well, at Bristol and Imperial you get a Masters at the end, so it's the same amount of fees as you'd pay for any other Masters (and I'd probably do four years anyway).
Oh, one of my friends is planning to apply to Worcester for Maths and Stats! But she's way too cool for TSR :cool:

Reply 924

Contrad!ction.

15

Original post by Jampolo

Using a sexface to descibe Maths lessons? I Love It.

:sexface:

For A Level, i had two teachers, one amazingly good, one not. This is sort of reflected in my results :tongue:

I did bad in all my applied modules except M1, but really good in core and pure modules. Next year i get totally new teachers though. Kudos to self teaching FP1 M1 and S2. Learning FP1 seemed hard enough at the time. Proof by induction was like learning a foreign language, managed to get the hang of it but choked in the exam :tongue:

But now im continuing maths, further maths and economics to A2. Dropping physics :tongue:

and this should allow me to get A*A*A, i doubt i'll get an A* in further maths, unless i do amazing in S2 M2 and FP2!

Using a sexface to describe being a maths applicant in a sig? Done. :sexface:

I have 3 - my head of maths taught me C1, C2 and would have taught me FP1 and S2 if I had the lessons. He's also teaching us D1 (taught a tiny bit of C3 but is swapping) and C4 later for Maths, and D2 and FP2 later for F Maths. My other Maths teacher was really nice but hates stats. She taught us C1 and S1. My other Further Maths teacher's ok but she teaches mechanics which I don't really like :tongue:

I love FP1. <3 Head of maths looked astonished when he saw I'd got 100 UMS on it :laugh:

I fluffed up my S2 though - I cocked up the critical region calculation in a Type II error question, meaning that I lost most of the 8 marks on that one. And then there were writing questions which are ugh - I hate writing answers :tongue:

Hopefully pure will help with the A* attempt.

I'm continuing maths, further maths and physics to A2, dropping chemistry. Hopefully the uni I go to has some sort of a physics society I can leech on to - I do like physics but I can't do both and I love maths too much to ditch it for physics :tongue:

Reply 925

Original post by twig

Here you go :smile:

:

Find the value of

\frac{100^{2}}{100!}+ \sum_{n=1}^{100}|n^{2}-3n+1|S_{n}

, where

S_{n}

is a G.P. with first term

\frac{n-1}{n!}

and common ratio

\frac{1}{n}

The question is quite fiddly/long, not anything neat as your one, but its the closest to a suitable series Q I could find. "Should" be quite straightforward (especially for you!).

(I am terrible with Latex, so there could be an error btw...)

just to be clear, S_n is the sum of a G.P.? how many terms?

Reply 926

Original post by ben-smith

just to be clear, S_n is the sum of a G.P.? how many terms?

Yes sum of a G.P. with infinite terms. Sorry.

Reply 927

Jampolo

13

Original post by Contrad!ction.

Using a sexface to describe being a maths applicant in a sig? Done. :sexface:

I have 3 - my head of maths taught me C1, C2 and would have taught me FP1 and S2 if I had the lessons. He's also teaching us D1 (taught a tiny bit of C3 but is swapping) and C4 later for Maths, and D2 and FP2 later for F Maths. My other Maths teacher was really nice but hates stats. She taught us C1 and S1. My other Further Maths teacher's ok but she teaches mechanics which I don't really like :tongue:

I love FP1. <3 Head of maths looked astonished when he saw I'd got 100 UMS on it :laugh:

I fluffed up my S2 though - I cocked up the critical region calculation in a Type II error question, meaning that I lost most of the 8 marks on that one. And then there were writing questions which are ugh - I hate writing answers :tongue:

Hopefully pure will help with the A* attempt.

I'm continuing maths, further maths and physics to A2, dropping chemistry. Hopefully the uni I go to has some sort of a physics society I can leech on to - I do like physics but I can't do both and I love maths too much to ditch it for physics :tongue:

Wow im so doing that, mathsmathsmaths :sexface:

mathsmaths

Haven't done S2 yet, but im counting on it being a 90+ module to go towards my A* in further maths, i hope. I've started self teaching C3 and C4 already, i hope to take them both in January so i can get A Level maths out of the way, and just concentrate on further. 100 UMS on FP1 is impressive. I forgot how to do summing series when the n is replaced by 2n :facepalm:

and also didn't cancel out a fraction on my proof by induction :facepalm:

so im astonished on how i managed to still get an A ha!

I like physics, it interests me, but A level physics doesn't. I found the syllabus boring and i was drifting off in lessons, not really revising for it and thats why i got a B. Although i do like mechanics, one of my favourite modules. Im looking forward to next year, got really good teachers, and are being taught STEP by the best maths teacher the college has ever seen ! :tongue:

What universities are you looking to apply to?

EDIT: Done :sexface:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 928

Original post by twig

Yes sum of a G.P. with infinite terms. Sorry.

it's getting messy...

Reply 929

Original post by ben-smith

it's getting messy...

Which part of the summation is getting messy? Sn converges for n>1, so you could deal with that separately. Also, the modulus sum can be taken care of by considering that it is only negative for the term with n=2.

Reply 930

Original post by twig

Which part of the summation is getting messy? Sn converges for n>1, so you could deal with that separately. Also, the modulus sum can be taken care of by considering that it is only negative for the term with n=2.

I've done all of that but am now wondering what I do for n=1 since Sn is divergent.

Reply 931

Original post by ben-smith

I've done all of that but am now wondering what I do for n=1 since Sn is divergent.

Lol Sn=0 for n=1, as the first term contains the factor (n-1).

Reply 932