Concepts of Instructor: Noha Abdelghany(nabdelgh)

Mathematics OHs: Mon 12-1pm & Fri 11am-12pm

OHs Location: WEAN Hall 8127
Lectures: 1 & 2
Sections: A B C D E F G H Lecture 1: MWF 9:9:50am in DH A302
Lecture 2: MWF 10:10:50am in DH A302
Spring 2025

21-127 SYLLABUS
About the Course Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of this course
you should be able to:
This course introduces 1. Write correct, clear and precise
the basic concepts, mathematical proofs, in an appropriate
ideas and tools involved level of detail, of both familiar and
in doing mathematics. unfamiliar mathematical results in the
As such, its main areas covered;
focus is on presenting
informal logic, and the 2. Accurately use standard mathematical
methods of mathematical notation and terminology in mathematical
proof. writing, including logical operators,
The subjects above quantifiers, sets and set operations,
are closely related functions and relations;
to the application of 3. Recognize and apply standard proof
mathematics in many techniques, including direct proof,
areas, particularly proof by contradiction, proof by
computer science. contraposition, and weak and strong
mathematical induction;

Topics discussed include 4. Accurately recall definitions and state

a basic introduction and prove the main theorems in the areas
to elementary number covered;
theory, induction,
the algebra of sets, 5. Solve unseen problems in the
relations, equivalence mathematical areas covered by
relations, congruences, identifying which proof techniques and
partitions, and results from the course are appropriate
functions, including and applying them accurately;
injections, surjections, 6. Typeset basic mathematical documents
and bijections. A basic using LATEX, including the mathematical
introduction to the real notation used in the course, sections,
numbers, rational and references and labels, and basic
irrational numbers. formatting.

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Topics and tentative schedule
January
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
13 14 15 16 17 18
Intro Number Logic
Sets
19 MLK day 20 21 HW#1 22 23 24 25
No class Logic Logic
MLK day
26 27 28 HW#2 29 30 31
Logic Logic Sets
February
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
2 3 4 HW#3 5 6 7 8
Sets Sets Functions
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Functions Exam 1 Functions
16 17 18 HW#4 19 20 21 22
Functions Induction Induction
23 24 25 HW#5 26 27 28
Induction Induction Catchup

March
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break

9 10 11 HW#6 12 13 14 15
Relations Relations Relations
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Relations Exam 2 Cardinality
23 24 25 HW#7 26 27 28 29
Cardinality Cardinality Number
Theory

30 31
Number
Theory

April
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 HW#8 2 3 4 5
Number Carnaval
Theory

6 7 8 HW# 9 9 10 11 12
Number Number Number
Theory Theory Theory

13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Combinatorics Exam 3 Combinatorics
20 21 22 HW#10 23 24 25 26
Combinatorics Combinatorics Review

Finals
.
Course materials: Our main textbook is
• An Infinite Descent into Pure Mathematics by Clive Newstead
ISBN 978-1-950215-00-3
The following books are also relevant and useful:
• How to Study as a Mathematics Major by Lara Alcock
ISBN 978-0-19-966131-2

• Book of Proof (3rd edition) by Richard Hammack

ISBN 978-0-9894721-2-8

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Mathematics (but Didn’t

Even Know to Ask) by Brendan Sullivan
Download here
Other suggested resources may be announced as the course is in progress—in
particular, if you find a useful resource that you think others would
benefit from, please contact Prof. Abdelghany.

Assessment and grades

Your performance in the course will be assessed by means of participation,
homework, three tests and a final exam.

Participation
Doing math can be a social activity! The overall learning and
educational environment is hugely improved when students are open
to asking questions, getting involved in discussions, explaining
things they think they understand well (this often shows gaps in
understanding), and being open to making mistakes. Participation
will be determined by the amount of social involvement you have in
this course, like (but not limited to): asking/answering questions
in lectures and recitations, getting involved on piazza discussion,
uploading your lecture notes on piazza or sharing extra sources with
other students, etc. Your participation grade will be determined by
your TA

Homework
This is the most important part of our class and is where most
of the learning happens. Homework consists of more challenging
mathematical exercises based on material introduced in class, graded
for mathematical correctness and clarity of work. It is designed
to give you the opportunity to strengthen your understanding,
practice using the tools and techniques from the course, and receive
feedback. You are meant to struggle in doing the homework, it is
likely that you will see some concepts on the homework that haven’t
been discussed in class, this is essential to develop skills like
self-education. You are encouraged to collaborate on your homework
with classmates and discuss with your professor and TAs. However,
you must independently write your own solutions, and you may NOT
look at or copy anyone else’s solutions. Failing to follow these
instruction is considered an academic integrity violation.

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 LATEX: Homeworks that are typed up in LATEX will receive +1 point of
extra credit per assignment. An excellent online LATEX compiler can be
found at [Link]. You can also find guides there about learning
LATEX, as well as document templates for first time users. I will post
the .tex files for HW assignments, which can also serve as templates
for homework submissions.

Tests
We will have three 50-minute tests during class time. These are
designed to solidify the knowledge and skills you have acquired
and reveals any gaps you might have in your knowledge. Our tests
are scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, Wednesday, March 19
and Wednesday, April 16. Absences will ONLY be excused with a
documented, university-approved excuse provided in advance.

Final Exam
Finally, the final exam is a cumulative examination at the end of
the course. It is designed to bring together all of the knowledge
and skills you have acquired over the course of the semester. We
will have a final exam scheduled by the registrar, and you should not
leave campus before the final exam.

Course average
Here is the break down of the course overall score:

Component Weight
Participation 3%
Average homework score (lowest 1 dropped) 30%
Highest test score 20%
Second-highest test score 15%
Greater of: lowest test score, final exam score 5%
Final exam score 27%

The following are the borderlines for letter grades:

A/B: 90% B/C: 80% C/D: 70% D/R: 60%

Work submission Homework is submitted on Gradescope as a single PDF.

You are responsible to mark the corresponding pages for each problem
on the homework, to ensure that your work is successfully submitted
on time. In particular, you should check to make sure the upload was
successful, that the files you upload are not corrupted, and that your
work is legible. Failing to do so will result in point deduction.
Homework may be submitted up to 12 hours late without penalty. This
‘grace period’ is intended for resolving unexpected technological issues.
Work submitted after this time will not be accepted for credit. You are
strongly advised to submit your work by the posted deadline, and not wait
until the end of the grace period to start submitting your work.

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Flexibility
Sometimes circumstances arise that prevent you from uploading your work on
time (or at all). There is flexibility built into the course to deal with
such circumstances:
• Enough scores are dropped from the course average computation that you
can theoretically miss two weeks of work without a catastrophic impact
on your grade. Please note that the dropped scores are in lieu of
make-ups and extensions.

• There is a grace period for online work submission to deal with

unforeseen technological difficulties: see the ‘Work submission’ part
for more information.
Therefore, I will grant NO homework extensions or test makeups. If an
unforeseen circumstance that is out of your control causes you to miss
the final exam, you will be able to take a make-up exam—contact Prof.
Abdelghany to discuss next steps.

Course resources
Piazza
Piazza is a forum where students can post questions, respond to each
others’ questions, and get responses from course staff. This is a
great way to interact with other students about the course material.
If you have a question, you will usually get a response on Piazza
faster than if you wait for office hours or a reply to an email.

Office hours
Office hours are your main opportunity to discuss the course material
with the course staff. Make the most of them! Even the very best
students use office hours to strengthen their knowledge: you do not
need to be struggling for office hours to be helpful.
• Have something in mind to discuss or ask, and be as specific as
possible.

• Take turns with other students—for example, if you ask a

question, allow the other students present to ask a question
before you ask a follow-up question.

• Please do not show us or other students your written attempts

at homework solutions. It would not be fair for us to provide
feedback on written solutions ahead of the submission deadline,
but we are happy to discuss your ideas or approach to the
problem.

• If in-person office hours are crowded and spilling into the

corridor, please respect everyone’s space, only stay for as long
as you need to, and remember to take your belongings with you
when you leave.

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 University resources
The Student Affairs office maintains a website listing some of the
many resources available to you as a CMU student: [Link]
student-affairs/resources/ — some of these resources are outlined below.

Accommodations
It is very important to me that my methods of instruction and
assessment are fair to everyone. If you require any accommodations,
including extra time on tests, note-taking services, large-text
format materials, alternative test locations, then you should
register with the Office of Disability Resources (ODR):
• Office of Disability Resources
[Link]
(412) 268-6121 / access@[Link]
Accommodations can only be granted after you have registered from ODR
and the notification of accommodations has been sent. Other forms
of evidence of need for accommodations, such as notes from doctors or
emails from parents, cannot be accepted.

Mental health and wellness

If you encounter any difficulties relating to your mental health
during the semester, contacting CaPS is a good first step towards
getting help if you need it:
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) (confidential
resource)
[Link]
(412) 268-2922

Academic resources
The Student Academic Success Center (SASC) provides a multitude of
academic resources for students, including peer tutoring, academic
coaching, advising, and guidance for online learning.
• Student Academic Success Center
[Link]

Diversity and inclusion

The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion offers resources such
as mentoring, advising and coaching (and much more), particularly for
students in historically underrepresented groups and first-generation
students.
More information can be found on the following website:
• Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion
[Link]
(412) 268-2150

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Discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct
We share a responsibility to make our community one where everyone
feels safe and welcome, both inside and outside the classroom.
Discrimination, harassment and abuse (sexual or otherwise) have no
place in this course or at CMU, or anywhere else for that matter.
Some resources for students regarding discrimination and harassment
are as follows.
• Office of Title IX Initiatives
[Link]
(412) 268-7125 / tix@[Link]

• Hazing Prevention & Response

[Link]

• CMU University Police

[Link]
(412) 268-2323

• Anonymous reporting
[Link] (username: tartans, password: plaid)
(877) 700-7050