MATH 246, Fall 2005 Course Outline

Note that this course is fairly time intensive: it covers a large number of topics, and in addition to ``paper and pencil'' skills computer projects with Matlab are an important part of this course. On the other hand you should remember that 80% of the semester grade will be determined by the four exams and the final exam, so you should do the recommended problems from the textbook (see homework below).

TIME & PLACE
TuTh 9:30-10:45, ARM0131
INSTRUCTOR
Dr. T. von Petersdorff, office MTH 4409, phone 405-5117, e-mail tvp@math.umd.edu , office hours Tue 1-3pm (or by appointment)
TEXTBOOKS (required)
Boyce & diPrima, Elementary Differential Equations 8th ed.
Coombes et al., 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), 8.1-8.4 (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. Make-up exams will only be given for legitimate and documented absences.
The dates of the exams are 9/27, 10/20, 11/10, 12/6.
Matlab Assignments (Total 20%)
There will be about 4 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. Matlab assignments must be handed in in the discussion session. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Final Exam (30%)
The cumulative final exam will be on Thursday, Dec. 15, 1:30-3:30pm. The room will be announced later.
MATLAB
This course will use Matlab version 6 or higher. You need a WAM or a Glue account (or both), and a printing account. 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 Problem Set A until 9/12 (this will not be collected).

COURSE WEB PAGE

http://www.glue.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.