Math 308 D and E, Spring 2012

Welcome to Math 308 D and E (Matrix Algebra with Applications)

Spring 2012

Course Information:

Lectures are on MWF, 10:30-11:20 (Math 308D) and 11:30-12:20 (Math 308E) in CDH 110A
Office hours: M, 1-2pm, in my office, and Tu, 1:30-3:30pm, at the Math Study Center (CMU B-014)
Instructor: Ioana Dumitriu,
       email: lastname at math dot washington dot edu
      phone: (206) 616-8164
Textbook: Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction by David Poole (3rd Edition)
Outline and Calendar for the quarter
Check your grades on Catalyst

Various Announcements (check this website for Midterm and Quiz solutions) NEW!!!

Grading Policy:

Based on Homework (10%), Quizzes (25% total), Midterm (25%), and Final (40%).

Exams:

Unless you have a compelling and well-documented reason to miss an exam (see the Outline for more), there will be NO MAKEUP EXAMS. Also, NO OUTSIDE MATERIALS will be permitted in any of the exams, and only calculators that fall within the Calculator Policy below.

Quizzes ----- Friday, April 13 and Friday, May 18 (each quiz will take 25 minutes at the end of the lecture).
Midterm ----- Wednesday, May 2 (during class time, in CDH 110A)
Final

for 308 D ----- Monday, June 4, 8:30-10:20am in CDH 110A
for 308 E ----- Wednesday, June 6, 2:30-4:20am in CDH 110A

Only basic calculators will be allowed; no graphing calculators, nor phone, iPod/Pad, etc. ones. If you are unsure about your calculator, just ask.

Reviews for Midterm and Final:

There will be

one review session for the midterm, to take place Tuesday, 05/1, between 3-6pm, location TBA.
one review session for the final, to take place Friday, 06/1, between 3-6pm, location TBA.

In addition, you should check the CLUE schedule for reviews.

Homework / Information on WebAssign:

The homework will be done in WebAssign. You will need to purchase an access code; if you buy the textbook new, an access code for WebAssign will come with it; otherwise you will need to buy the access code separately--information on how to get one can be found here.

   Here are descriptive instructions on accessing WebAssign. Once you're in your WebAssign account, you will be able to see your current assignment(s) for this class and to start doing your homework. The first assignment will become visible on March 26.

The number of attempts to answer each question has been set up at 3, unless it's multiple choice, in which case you only get 1 attempt.

Considerations:

Linear Algebra is all about matrices, which are useful tools in solving systems of linear equations. In a deeper sense, matrices are linear transformations of a space, and their usefulness derives hence. Understanding matrices and their properties helps us not only solve linear systems, but also do many other things, like work with projections in order to find "best approximations" in the sense of data fitting (which are techniques widely used in science, engineering, and finance). More conceptually, we will learn how to look at a matrix and understand its important properties and attributes.
Nota bene: in real life, it is quite likely that you will not have to do any computations yourselves; instead, you will learn how to use a computer to solve equations, find determinants, etc. Anything we do here can be done much faster and more reliably by a good piece of software; e.g., Matlab. The point of (conceptually) learning things in this class is so you know how and why Matlab (and all other software) occasionally, but unavoidably, fails.
Caveat. The relative ease of the first few weeks may lull you into a false sense of confidence and into complacency. After the midterm, most students will experience a "jump" in the level of difficulty. The class becomes a bit more abstract, as the content becomes more conceptual! To reduce this jump, you must make sure that you can do more than just solve the homework--you will need to understand how to work with the definitions, concepts, and proofs that will be discussed in lecture and in the book.