MT 116 - Algebra in the Real World

Credit Hours: 3

This course is intended to enable students to view mathematics as part of their life experience by solving real-world problems using a modeling and function approach. This course is especially suitable for liberal arts/general studies, social science and humanities majors, and the many majors that only require a math elective, such as Communication Arts. Major topics include an introduction to functions from a verbal, numeric, algebraic, and graphical approach; an investigation of elementary functions (linear, exponential, logarithmic, and quadratic) through modeling and analyzing real data and an applications approach to building and solving systems of linear equations. A specific graphing calculator is recommended and will be used throughout the course. This course may be used as an alternative to MT 112 or as a bridge to MT 125. It will not replace the MT 125/126 sequence as a prerequisite for calculus.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

define and recognize a function from a verbal, numerical, symbolic, and graphical viewpoint, including basic vocabulary and notation;
solve problems arising from the context of a situation using linear functions and systems of linear equations, and exponential, logarithmic, and quadratic functions;
express the specific properties related to each of the following types of functions from a verbal, numerical, symbolic, and graphical approach: linear, exponential, logarithmic, and quadratic; and
recognize linear and nonlinear data, and model the data with an appropriate function.

The technology objective is to use appropriate technology:

to visually capture the graphical representations of specific functions to interpret and make predictions based on the graph; and
to construct regression models from linear and non-linear data.

Prerequisites: MT 006 or MT 013 or waived from placement test or placed into degree credit math.
F/S (C, N, S)