Math 1007: Mathematics and PoliticsI
Section 14
Fall 2025

Contact Info
Spring 2025

Office: Phillips Hall 720E
Email: jaydaigle@gwu.edu

Office Hours: TBD; tentatively

Course Information

Lecture:

  • MW 12:45 PM–2:000 PM
  • Duques 151

Official textbook:

  • The Mathematics of Politics, Second Edition
  • Robinson and Ullman
  • ISBN: 9781498798907

Course Information

Lecture:

  • MW 12:45 PM–2:000 PM
  • Duques 151

Official textbook:

  • The Mathematics of Politics, Second Edition
  • Robinson and Ullman
  • ISBN: 9781498798907

Daily Assignments

Week 1: August 25-29
August 25: Mathematical Reasoning
August 27: Voting Systems
Week 2: September 1 – 5
September 1: No Classes for Labor Day
September 3: Two-Candidate Elections
Week 3: September 8 – 12
September 8: Criteria for Voting Systems
  • Quiz 1 today
September 10: Multi-Candidate Criteria
Week 4: September 15 – 19
September 15: Theorems about Voting System Criteria
September 17: Evaluating Voting Systems I
Week 5: September 22 – 26
September 22: Evaluating Voting Systems II
  • Quiz 2 today
September 24: Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
Week 6: September 29 – October 3
September 29: Test 1 on Voting
October 1: The Problem of Apportionment
Week 7: October 6 – 8
October 6: Hamilton’s Method
October 8: Jefferson’s Method
Week 8: October 13 – 17
October 13: Divisor Methods
  • Quiz 3 today
October 15: More on Divisor Methods
Week 9: October 20 – 24
October 20: Evaluating Apportionment Methods
October 22: Criteria and Impossibility
  • Quiz 4 today
Week 10: October 27 – 31
October 27: The Balinski and Young Apportionment Method
October 29: Test 2 on Apportionment
Week 11: November 3 – 7
November 3: Zero-Sum Games
November 5: Strategies, Outcomes, and Saddle Points
Week 12: November 10 – 14
November 10: Probability and Randomness
November 12: Expected Value and Strategies
  • Quiz 5 today
Week 13: November 17 – 21
November 17: Solving Zero-Sum Games
November 19: Conflict and Cooperation
Thanksgiving Break: November 24-28

No class! Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 14: December 1 – 5
December 1: Non-Zero-Sum Games
December 3: Strategies in Non-Zero-Sum Games
  • Quiz 6 today
Week 15: December 8-10
December 8: Some Important Games
Finals Week
Reading Days
Office Hours Schedule
  • TBA close to finals week
Final Exam Monday, December 15 12:40 – 2:40 PM

Syllabus

The course syllabus is available here.

Course notes

Homework

Tests

Calculators of any sort will not be allowed on tests. I will allow you to bring a cheat sheet in your own handwriting. For midterms I will allow a one-sided cheat sheet, and for the final I will allow a two-sided cheat sheet.

Textbook

The official textbook for Math 1007 is The Mathematics of Politics, Second Edition by E. Arthur Robinson and Daniel H. Ullman. It should be available free online through the library website, and you can buy a hard copy for under $50 if you wish. I will be expecting you to read sections of the textbook and assigning problems out of it.