MATH 246, Spring 2010 Course Outline

TIME & PLACE
MWF 9-9:50 ARM 0126
INSTRUCTOR
Dr. T. von Petersdorff, office MTH 4409, phone 405-5117, e-mail tvp@math.umd.edu, office hours Tue 10-12pm (or by appointment)
TEXTBOOKS (required)
Boyce & diPrima: Elementary Differential Equations 9th ed.
Hunt, Lipsman, Osborn, Rosenberg: Differential Equations with Matlab 2nd ed.
SYLLABUS
Chapters in Boyce & diPrima with corresponding chapters of the Matlab supplement in parentheses:
1, 2.1-2.8 (5-6), 8.1-8.3 (7), 3 (10), 6.1-6.5 (12), 7.1-7.7 (13), 9.1-9.5 (14)
HOMEWORK
Homework problems from Boyce & diPrima are listed on the web page. They will not be collected or graded. But I strongly recommend that you do these problems since the exam and final exam problems will be similar to those problems. Even if you understand all the material you need to do practice problems, otherwise you will not be able to solve the exam problems in the available time.
GRADING POLICY
Exams (Total 50%)
There will be 4 in-class exams.

Each student must bring his or her University picture ID card to the exams. Make-up exams will not be given unless a student can present substantial evidence that an absence was caused by serious illness, a death in the immediate family, religious observance, participation in University activities at the request of University authorities, or compelling circumstances beyond the student's control. For an illness you must present a signed statement from a doctor that your illness was sufficiently serious to make you miss an exam. A note saying only that you visited the doctor or the Health Center will not suffice. If the absence is caused by foreseeable circumstances, notice must be given in advance in order to be allowed to take a makeup exam. Students who do not provide adequate documentation for their absence will receive a score of zero for the exam.
The dates of the exams are Feb. 15, March 8, April 7, April 26.

Matlab Assignments (Total 20%)
There will be about 3 Matlab assignments to be handed in. You may work in teams of up to 3 students with each team handing in one paper. Different teams may not work together or share their work. Members of a team must have the same TA. Matlab assignments must be handed in in the discussion session. Late assignments will not be accepted. Matlab homework must be prepared in the format explained on the web page.

Final Exam (30%)
The cumulative final exam will be on Thursday, May. 13, 1:30-3:30pm. The room will be announced later.

MATLAB
This course will use Matlab. You can use the computer labs on campus. You can also buy the student version Matlab and use it on your own PC. I will not explain Matlab in class. Please read chapters 2, 3, 4 in ``Differential Equations with Matlab'' and try out the commands on the computer. Then do the practice problem set on the web page until Feb. 15 (this will not be collected).

COURSE WEB PAGE
http://www.math.umd.edu/~tvp/246 contains important information for this course: recommended problems from the text book, instructions for using Matlab for differential equations, hints for the Matlab projects and more. It is important that you check this web page regularly.



T. von Petersdorff
Last modified: Sun Jan 24 20:21:09 EST 2010