York University
MATH 1581
Business Mathematics I
Fall 2015
Instructor: Hyejin Ku
Office: N517 Ross Bldg.
Email: hku@mathstat.yorku.ca
Text: “Mathematics of Finance” by R.L. Brown, S. Kopp and P. Zima, McGraw-Hill
Ryerson, 8th ed.
Course Description
This course is aimed at general audience who are not contemplating a career in the
actuarial profession. Mathematics for Commerce students in the Actuarial Stream should
enroll in MATH 2280. In this course, we will cover the following topics: Interest rates,
Present value calculation, Annuity valuation, Loan amortization, Sinking funds and
Bonds.
Class Attendance
Class attendance is required. If you do miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out
what was covered and whether any important announcement was made. Class
participation is strongly encouraged. You can participate both by asking some questions
and by answering others. Please don’t hesitate to ask for clarification.
Grading Policy
The final grade for the course will be distributed as
Homework: 15%
Tests: 10%
Final exam: 75%
Which add up to 100%
Homework
Homework will be assigned weekly through Connect. Normally an assignment will be
given on Friday and will be due at 6pm on the following Thursday. Late homework will
not be accepted. There will be 7 homework assignments throughout the semester but the
lowest homework grade will be dropped for the final course grade. The remaining
homework grades will be averaged to determine the homework score.
Test
Tests will be given through Connect, for your choice of 60 minutes time period from
10:00am – 6:00pm on each of the test dates. There will be 3 tests, but the lowest test
grade will be dropped for the final grade. The tentative dates for tests are Oct 15, Nov 12,
and Dec 3. On test dates, lecture will be given for 7:00pm – 8:30pm. If you miss any of
the tests, there will be no make-up tests, and the remaining test grades will count.
Final exam
Final exam (paper/pencil exam) will be held during the exam period, determined by the
University. Do not make vacation/job plans until the exam date is known. The final exam
covers the entire course. It is mandatory to take the final exam to get a passing grade on
the course.
Tentative Schedule
The following schedule is tentative, it will get more accurate as the semester progresses.
Date
Sep 10
Sep 17
Sep 24
Oct 1
Oct 8
Oct 15
Oct 22
Oct 29
Nov 5
Nov 12
Nov19
Nov26
Dec 3
Lecture Topics
Introduction, Sec 1.1
Sec 1.2 – 1.4
Sec 1.5, 2.1, 2.2
Sec 2.3 – 2.5
Sec 2.6, 2.7, 3.1
Sec 3.2, 3.3
Sec 3.4, 3.5
No Class
Sec 4.1 – 4.3
Sec 5.1, 5.2
Sec 5.3, 5.5
Sec 5.6, 6.1, 6.2
Sec 6.1, 6.2
HW#1 due
HW#2 due
HW#3 due
Test #1
HW#4 due
Reading Week
HW#5 due
Test #2
HW#6 due
HW#7 due
Test #3
Prerequisites: Some of the material in the book’s appendices, on exponents, logarithms
and progressions, is considered prerequisite to this course. It would be good to review it
now, or during the course, as needed. The relevant material is Appendix 1 and 2.
Important: This is a problem-solving course. Even though you may find what you read or
hear simple, easy, or reasonable, it is difficult to understand if you cannot apply it
yourself. To master the material, you should check yourself by doing problems and
practice. The most important activity for the student is solving the exercises in the text.
The back of the textbook contains the answers to problems so it is quite practical to work
on your own or together in small groups.
Calculator: You will need a calculator with the ability to compute exponentials,
logarithms, reciprocals and powers. If you choose to buy financial calculators which can
do many of the calculations in this course quite quickly, learn how to use your calculator.
Read carefully and keep this document for future reference. If you stay in the course then
you are agreeing to accept them.