Outline People Reading Grading Academics Homepage

MA 405 Spring 2015 Syllabus

Course Outline*

Note: all underscored links are active; future links will be installed over the listed items as the class progresses.
Lecture Topic(s) Maple ws Notes/Book(s)
1. Jan 7 Course overview 1.mws (1.txt)  
2. Jan 9, Fri Solution of linear equations
L §1.1; S §1.1, S §1.2
3. Jan 12 Reduction to REF, Gaussian elimination
L §1.2; S §1.3, S §1.4; Mathematicians on paper money
4. Jan 14 Reduced REF, Gauss-Jordan elimination 4.mws
L §1.2
5. Jan 16, Fri Catch-up


Monday Jan 19 MLK Holiday, no class
6. Jan 21 Matrix algebra L §1.3-1.4 S §2.1, S §2.2, S §2.3, Part S §2.4
7. Jan 23, Fri Matrix multiplication

8. Jan 26 Fibonacci numbers
9. Jan 28 Matrix inverse, transposition S §2.4
10. Jan 30, Fri Catch-up
fib.mws

11. Feb 2 Elementary matrices; matrix factorization 11.mws L §1.5; S §2.8-10
12. Feb 4, Wed, class time First midterm exam, counts 20%
13. Feb 6, Fri Determinants
H §2.1-3; S §3
14. Feb 9 Return of exam

15. Feb 11 Minor (co-factor) expansion; cost of recursion
12.mws (12.txt) H §2.4; S §3.6-7
16. Feb 13, Fri(!) Catch-up
fib.mws

17. Feb 16 Cramer's rule
13.mws (13.txt)
18. Feb 18 Vector Spaces 14.mws (14.txt)
H §3.1-3; S §4.1,
19. Feb 20, Fri Subspace
H §3.4 S §6.1
20. Feb 23 Lin independence, span, basis
H §3.5; S §6.6-7 H §3.6; S §6.12
21. Feb 25 Nullspace, dimension
H §3.7; S §6.3-4
22. Mar 2 Row and col space, rank
H §3.7
Wed, Mar 4, 11:59pm Last day to drop course without grade
23. Mar 4 Catch-up; review of exam


Week Mar 9-13 Spring break, no classes
24. Mar 16, Mon, at class time Second midterm exam, counts 20%
25. Mar 18 Orthogonal vectors and complement spaces
H §4.2; S §4.1, S §6.18
26. Mar 23 Return of exam; catch-up


27. Mar 25 Orthogonal projection, least squares 21.mws, 21B.mws
H §4.2-3; S §6.28
28. Mar 30 Application of least squares: curve fitting 29.mws

29. Apr 1(!) Abstract inner product, norm; weighted least squares 30.mws
H §4.4
30. Apr 6 Gram-Schmidt process 24.mws H §4.5-6; S §6.22
31. Apr 8 Ortho proj by QR factorization 25.mws, 25.txt
32. Apr 13 Catch-up


33. Apr 15 Linear transformations 26.mws H §4.1; S §5.1-4
34. Apr 20 Eigenvalues 27a.mws (27a.txt) 27b.mws (27b.txt) H §5.2-3, 5.6; S §6.36
35. Apr 22
Catch up; review of final exam
Wed, Apr 29, 13h00-15h00, in class room Final exam, counts 30%
* This is a projected list and subject to amendment.

Instruction Personnel

For instructor, office hours, telephone numbers, email and physical addresses see the homepages of Erich Kaltofen

Textbook and Online Text and Notes

I have obtained Professor Mark Sapir's online linear algebra text book. The book was purchased by a lump sum and is free for you.

If you really need a hardcopy textbook, you can buy We will be following Leon's book ("S" in the above syllabus), but the material in Hill's book is very similar and you should not have any difficulty finding the corresponding sections ("L" in the above syllabus).

On-line information: All information on courses that I teach (except individual grades) is now accessible via html browsers, which includes this syllabus. Click on my courses' page of my resume. You can also find information on courses that I have taught in the past, and examinations that I have given.

Grading and General Information

Grading will be done with plus/minus refinement.

There will be four homework assignments of approximately equal weight, two mid-semester examinations during the semester, and final examination. Depending on time constraints, I may only grade a selection of homework problems.

I will check who attends class. You will forfeit 10% of your grade if you miss 3 or more classes without a valid justification. I you miss a class because you are sick, etc., please let me know. I may require you to document your reason.

If you need assistance in any way, please let me know (see also the University's policy). Grade distribution of Spring 2012.

Academic Standards

Examinations:All three examinations will be closed book-closed notes. However, you will be able to bring 2-sided note sheets of paper with pertinent information to the examinations (1 for first exam, 2 for second exam, and 3 for final exam with the intent that you reuse your sheets for subsequent exams).

Collaboration on homeworks: I expect every student to be his/her own writer/Maple programmer. Therefore the only thing you can discuss with anyone is how you might go about solving a particular problem. You may use freely information that you retrieve from public (electronic) libraries or texts, but you must properly reference your source.

Late submissions: All homeworks must be submitted on time. The following penalties are given for (unexcused) late submissions:

Alleged cheating incidents: I will not decide any penalty myself, but refer all such cases to the proper judiciary procedures.

©2003, 2013, 2014 Erich Kaltofen.