CCC 801 - Art of Numbers

Syllabus for CCC 801 – Art of Numbers

Credits (Lec:Tut:Lab) = 1.5:0:0 (3 lectures weekly over a half-semester)

Overview: This course deals with two aspects of numbers. In the first part of the course we will take up some unexplored patterns that exist in nature, study them and understand some of their applications. The second part looks at numbers as carriers of information about our lives. Here we learn how to analyze and present data in ways that help us make sense of our lives. We'll use the spreadsheet program in Open Office to analyze the data in depth.

Detailed Syllabus:

Part A: Fun with Numbers

1. Moessner’s Magic
2. Permutation, Combinations
3. Pascal Triangle, Binomial Theorem
4. Fibonacci Sequence
5. Some applications

Part B: Handling Data

6. Interacting with real time data
7. Descriptive Statistics like mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, percentiles, quartiles
8. Introduction to a Spreadsheet program (Open Office or Excel)
9. Charts – Bar Charts, Histograms, Line Charts, Pie Charts
10. Simulations
11. Case Studies

Assessment:

Assignments	20%
Presentations	40%
Term Paper	40%

References:

1. The Book of Numbers by John Horton Conway, Richard K. Guy. 2^nd edition, Copernicus.
2. The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger, Michael Starbird. 3^rd edition, Wiley.
3. The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. 2^nd edition, Graphics Press.
4. Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald. Shroff/O'Reilly.
5. Analyzing Business Data with Excel by Gerald Knight. Shroff/O'Reilly.