Spring 2009, UAF
REVISED
SYLLABUS, 5 April 2009
The Course:
Differential equations are the form in which science and
engineering
use mathematics most frequently. The goal of Math 302 is the
understanding of ordinary differential equations, along with methods
for their solution.
You
will
understand why you had to take so much calculus! You will begin
to
think of mathematics dynamically and in terms of movies instead of
static graphs of functions.
I will try to avoid a "cookbook" approach to
differential
equations. This may well make it harder. Visualizing
differential equations will be emphasized. Systems of
differential equations will be introduced as soon as possible.
We will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 of the textbook, and
I will try to motivate the ideas in chapters 9 and 10 as well.
Exams, Homework, and Grade:
65% of your grade will be determined by four
hours
of exams:
20%
20%
25%
|
Midterm Exam # 1
Midterm Exam # 2
Final Exam |
Monday 23 February (one hour, in class)
Monday 6 April (one hour, in class)
Friday 8 May, 8-10am (two hours) |
|
35% One third of the
grade will be determined by 11 graded homework
assignments. Four of these assignments will involve
graded group work based on projects/labs.
The course grade will be determined by points on the
exams and homework, according to the schedule at right --->
The schedule represents a
guarantee. Note I will use plus/minus grades as illustrated. |
Percent
93 - 100 %
90 - 92 %
87 - 89 %
82 - 86 %
79 - 81 %
76 - 78 %
71 - 75 %
68 - 70 %
65 - 67 %
60 - 64 %
57 - 59 %
0 - 56 %
|
Grade
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F |
Computer use in this course:
A CDROM called Interactive Differential Equations came with
your
textbook. The same functions are also available online at http://www.aw-bc.com/ide/
I will be using IDE for projects/labs, some homework, and to illustrate
ideas.
I also recommend that you learn how to use Matlab or Octave or another
scientific computing language. I will occasionally use such for
examples, but I will not assign it as homework.
Policies: The Department of Mathematics
and Statistics has reasonable policies on incompletes, late
withdrawals, early final examinations, etc. See www.dms.uaf.edu/dms/Policies.html
. You are covered by the UAF Student Code of
Conduct.
I will work with
the Office of Disabilities Services (203 WHIT, 474-7043) to provide
reasonable accommodation to student with disabilities.
Makeup exams: I will create makeup versions of Midterm
Exams I and II if necessary, provided you have a convincing reason for me to do so
and
you let me know at least two class
days
before the exam.
Other books, related courses:
A common alternate text for a course like Math 302 is Boyce &
DiPrima,
Elementary
Differential Equations. It has a more traditional,
method-oriented
emphasis. A completely different book is Zwillinger,
Handbook
of Differential Equations. It seems at first like just a list
of differential equations, but turns out to have great explanations of
lots of methods. I also like the way Numerical Recipes explains the way
approximations to differential equations work.
Math 421 Applied Analysis covers advanced differential
equations
(DEs), and especially partial DEs. Math 310 Numerical Analysis
includes computer
methods
for solving DEs, and Math 314 Linear Algebra covers the tools needed to
really
understand systems of DEs and the idea of independent solutions to
linear
DEs.
There are many applications courses that use DEs; a partial list:
ATM 401, BIOL 671, CHEM 331, CE 631, ECON 636, EE 353, EE
354,
EE 451, EE 471, ES 301, GEOS 614, MSL 629, ME 404, ME 408, ME
409, ME 441, PETE 489, PHYS 311, PHYS 331, PHYS 651.