PAGE UNDERGOING MODIFICATIONS
Math 307-201 Page, Spring 2013
Linear algebra involves situations where objects can be added and scaled, involving functions whose values sum and scale exactly the way the objects do; for example, where the price of 514 espressos and 15.6 bagels is exactly 514 times the price of one espresso plus 15.6 times the price of one bagel. We assume that you have taken one semester of linear algebra, and we will organize the course around applications.
Our course material will mainly Richard Froese's Math 307 Text from last semester. However, the choice/order of topics may differ, as will the homework and grading. Additional materials and notes (below) will try to be consistent (as much as possible) with the above text.
In particular, the course is organized around applications, and will cover some of the following: Card shuffling, PageRank, power method, interpolation, least squares, graphs and networks, recursively defined functions, Markov chains, principal coordinate analysis, JPEG compression, finite difference approximations, FFT, Fourier analysis, Anderson tight binding model. The topic of Markov chains is really many topics in one, as it includes many models such as PageRank, card shuffling, and others.
The midterm will take place 12:00-12:50pm on Wednesday, March 6, in SCRF 100.
| NEW VERSION | The following is a preliminary draft of a new version of Richard Froese's Math 307 Text. It will eventually include some new materials we are using. It will change a fair amount in the coming weeks. |
|---|---|
| Other Materials | We shall supplement Richard Froese's Math 307 Text with some materials. Here is an introduction to this course, which is work in progress; Section 1-3 are in close to final form; Sections 4 and 5 there are skeletal at this point. A blog will be used to give class notes, especially to supplement the text and other materials; the blog will also indicate roughly what was covered when. I may also write some more detailed notes and post them here. |
| Midterm | The midterm will take place 12-1pm on Wednesday, March 6, in SCRF 100. |
| Office Hours | Office hours will be given by appointment, as long as this is feasible. When things get too busy, I will give office hours by fixed hours which I will post (this will always happen just before an exam). |
| Computations | Homework will involve computations, which are to be done in Matlab or GNU Octave. You will be given a computer account with one or both of these programs; they are similar, but have syntactic differences. A page on Matlab/Octave in the math department is available here. For documentation you might try: MATLAB documentation page and GNU Octave page. |
| GNU Octave | GNU Octave is free, and is (usually) not too difficult to install on any Linux, MacOS, or Windows system (Linux systems usually come with Octave installed). Richard Froese has created a UBC Wiki page to help you install Octave if you'd like to give this a try; see also the GNU Octave download instructions and my notes on my mildly problematic Octave install on my Mac. |
| SLATE | You will be issued a SLATE account for our course's SLATE site, used posting marks and other administrative purposes. I may also use the emailing system provided by the Faculty Service Centre; make sure your email address is up-to-date. |
| Grade |
You will be graded on the basis of a final (f), one midterm (m),
homework (h), and "meet the instructor" (mti). Your grade will be
computed as:
.03 max(mti,h,m,f) + .07 max(h,m,f) + .30 max(m,f) + .60 f Hence if you get 100% on the final and 0% on everything else, you get a 100% for the course; however, I have yet to see this happen... |
| MTI: Meet The Instructor |
Part of the course is a short (at most five minute)
discussion with the instructor
(i.e., me, Joel), in my Math office, Mathematics Building, room 210.
Your grade will be 98% for showing up, plus 2% for you answers
to the following
questions:
(1) Give one aspect of linear algebra (e.g., an application, a principle) that you find of interest; explain why. (2) Give one way in which Math 307 relates to one of your long term goals, or strengths, or interests. You should give a brief (say 10-20 second) answer to each question, and be prepared to elaborate with concrete justification. This is not a big research project. It should take at most 15 minutes of research on the internet (you can use a topic on this webpage), plus a bit of thought. The idea is to figure out some benefit of this course beyond earning three credits. You may also consider the following question: (3) Your CV is sitting in an application pile for a single scientific job with 20 other CV's that look more or less the same. List one strength you have that is not apparent from your CV. Name it in a few words, and be prepared to give concrete evidence of this strength. Does it have any connection to (1) and (2)? All MTI appointments take place in my Math office, Mathematics Building, room 210. |
| Homework |
Homework will be assigned roughly weekly.
Homework #1, due January 18: Problems 1-5 of problems0.pdf. You may find the following files useful: cards_hw1_common.m, prob04.m, prob05.m. It seems that some versions of Octave (and/or Matlab) do not like blank lines or two commands on one line in a .m file; if you have such a version, you may have to edit the .m file(s) a bit by hand. Homework #2, due January 28: Problems 16 and 18 of problems1.1.pdf, and Problem 1 of hw21jan.pdf. Homework #3, due Wednesday, February 6: Problems 4 and 7 of problems3.1.pdf, and Problem 2 of hw28jan.pdf. |
| Solutions |
Homework solutions here will be shared by our section and the
other
section(s).
Here are some used by both sections: solutions1.1, solutions1.2, solutions1.3. Here are some used by my section, based on problems I have recently written: solutions0 (for Homework #1), sol21jan (coming soon, with hyperlinks). |
| Late Homework | Late homework (received before solutions are released) is not be graded unless the grader happens to have spare time after all his/her other duties for the week are finished. You may hand in late homework, but there are never guarantees. Typically I will drop your lowest homework or two in the grade calculation. |
| Other News |
No news is good news.
Classes start: Jan 2, end: April 5, break: Feb 18-22. |
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