We will mostly follow these sources:
- A User-Friendly Introduction to Lebesgue Measure and Integration by Gail S. Nelson.
- Real Analysis: Measure Theory, Integration, and Hilbert Spaces by Elias M. Stein and Rami Shakarchi. An online version is available through the Grinnell library.
- My own metric space notes to fill in a few gaps.
I encourage you to consult other sources as supplements. Here are a few suggestions:
- Measure, Integration, and Real Analysis by Sheldon Axler. Available online.
- Lebesgue Integration on Euclidean Space by Frank Jones.
- A Radical Approach to Lebesgue's Theory of Integration by David M. Bressoud.
- Notes from when I taught Foundations of Analysis.
Homework assignments will be due on Fridays at 5:00pm, and will be posted to the course webpage. You should submit you solutions as one pdf file to the corresponding homework folder within your course OneDrive folder (that I will share with you). Throughout the semester, you may extend the deadline of at most two homework assignments until the following Monday. If you choose to extend the deadline of an assignment, you should send me an email by the usual due date. Beyond these two extensions, late homework will not be accepted for credit, unless there is an emergency that you bring to my attention before the due date.
Your lowest homework score will be dropped.
Homework will be graded on the basis of correctness, elegance, and also clarity of exposition. You have all had experience writing mathematical proofs, and one important goal of this goal is to hone your mathematical writing skills. You should take extra time to organize and write your solutions after you have solved the problems. Write in complete sentences and connect mathematical symbolism with explanation. A correct solution which is difficult to read and understand will not receive full credit.
One of the goals of the course is to give you an opportunity to work through a topic of your choosing in depth, and present your work to the class. I will provide several possible suggestions, but you can pursue any topic that has a connection to the material in the course.
In addition to reading and homework assignments, I expect each of you to engage in the learning process other ways. You should regularly attend class, contribute to class discussions, and ask questions in office hours or via email.
Consult the general Grinnell College policy on Academic Honesty and the associated booklet for general information.
If you enjoy working in groups, I strongly encourage you to work with others in the class to solve the homework problems. If you do collaborative work or receive help form somebody in the course, you must acknowledge this on the corresponding problem(s). Writing "I worked with Sam on this problem" or "Mary helped me with this problem" suffices. You may ask students outside the course for help, but you need to make sure they understand the academic honesty policies for the course and you need to cite their assistance as well. Failure to acknowledge such collaboration or assistance is a violation of academic honesty.
If you work with others, your homework must be written up independently in your own words. You cannot write a communal solution and all copy it down. You cannot read a solution (from another person, a website, etc.) and alter it slightly in notation/exposition. Discussing ideas and/or writing parts of computations together on whiteboards or scratch paper is perfectly fine, but you need to take those ideas and write the problem up on your own. Under no circumstances should you look at another student's completed written work.
I encourage you to look at other books or online sources for additional help in understanding concepts and ideas, but you must cite other books or online sources if they provide you with an idea that helps you solve a problem. However, you may not do any of the following:
- Specifically search or look for solutions to homework problems in books or online sources.
- Solicit help for homework problems from online forums.
- Prompt an LLM (or other AI-assisted tool) or computer algebra system (such as Mathematica) to help you with the argument for a specific assigned problem.
I encourage students with documented disabilities to discuss reasonable accommodations with me so that they can fully participate in the course. Students will also need to have a conversation with, and provide documentation of your disability to, the Coordinator for Disability Resources, Jae Baldree, located on the first floor of Steiner Hall (x3089).
I encourage students who plan to observe holy days that coincide with class meetings or assignment due dates to consult with me as soon as possible so that we may reach a mutual understanding of how you can meet the terms of your religious observance and also the requirements for this course.