Undergraduate - UnitETS1200 - Quantitative methods for business

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
Offered	South Africa Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Ms Morire Labeodan

Synopsis

This unit aims to develop the mathematical knowledge, skills and attitudes of first year business students. Students will learn about the following topics; mathematical preliminaries, the straight line and applications, simultaneous equations, non-linear functions and applications, differentiation and applications, integration and applications, function of several variables (partial differentiation), basic linear algebra and financial mathematics (arithmetic and geometric progression, simple and compound interest, depreciation and net present value).

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

perform basic mathematical calculations with algebraic expressions and fractions
understand the straight line function to model a wide range of concepts in economics and business such as the demand, supply and cost functions
use different methods to solve simultaneous equations analytically and graphically and apply these methods to the analysis of equilibrium in the goods, labour and money markets
use different types of non-linear functions in economics and business
understand differentiation, integration and derivatives of several functions and their optimisation and how it can be applied to business
solve first and second order partial derivatives
perform basic matrix arithmetic operations and determine the determinant and inverse of 2x2 and 3x3 matrices
calculate the arithmetic and geometric sequences and series and apply them in financial mathematics.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination: 60%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Ms Morire Labeodan

Co-requisites

Students must be enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Science to undertake this unit.