Math 0290 Syllabus

Overview
The discovery of Infinitesimal Calculus by Newton and Leibniz a the end of the XVII century provided scientists and engineers with two very powerful tools: the derivative and the integral. The derivative measures change and the integral measures accumulation. When modeling engineering systems we often have to incorporate a quantity and its rate of change (and perhaps the rate of change of the rate of change) into an equation. These are called differential equations. Sometimes the equation also depends on how a certain quantity accumulates. We then work with integral equations. In this course we will concentrate almost exclusively on differential equations. Until relatively recently, books on differential equations contained long list of recipes on how to compute solutions that can be expressed with explicit formulas. Today we are fortunate to have access to fast inexpensive computers so that we can concentrate on understanding the models and their implications in different engineering disciplines rather than be burdened with repetitive calculations. The computational tool that we will use is MatLab, a professional scientific computing environment favored in Engineering and Mathematics.

Textbooks
Polking, Boggess and Arnold, Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems, second edition, Pearson Prentice-Hall Polking and Arnold,Ordinary Differential Equations using MatLab, Third Edition, Pearson Prentice-Hall These two items will be packaged together in the Pitt Bookstore.

Other Materials
You will need some MatLab add-on software for differential equations. It can be downloaded from http://math.rice.edu~dfield/ at Rice University.

Grades
Your course grade will be determined as follows: Two midterm exams 40% (20% each) Final exam 40% Homework 20% Some sections may deviate slightly from this recipe. Any deviations will be announced by your instructor at the beginning of the term.

Exam Policies
Exam dates will be announced ahead of time. Any student with a serious conflict should alert the instructor ahead of time, before the exam date, to discuss arrangements and should be prepared to show documentation establishing the validity of the conflict. All day sections will take a departmental final exam at a time and place to be scheduled by the registrar. Evening sections will meet through final exam week, and the final exam will be given during the last one or two scheduled class periods.

Final Grade Policy

According the the policies of the Department of Mathematics for this course, your final course grade may not exceed your final exam grade by more than one letter grade.

Office Hours
Your instructor will announce his or her office hours.

Academic Integrity
Cheating/plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students proved to have violated the University of Pittsburgh Policy on Academic Integrity will incur a minimum sanction of a zero score for the quiz, exam or paper in question. Additional sanctions may be imposed, depending on the severity of the infraction.

On homework, you may work with other students or use library resources, but each student must write up his or her solutions independently. Copying solutions from other students will be considered cheating and handled accordingly.

Disability Resource Services

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union (412) 624-7890 as early as possible in the term.

Schedule and practice problems

References of the form a.b refer to sections in the main textbook. References of the form Ma refer to Chapter a of the MatLab supplement. Week 1: Modeling with differential equations First order initial value problems Separation of variables 1.1 Number 1-11 2.1 Number 1-6, 12-15 2.2 Number 1-18, 33-35 M1 Number 1 Week 2: First order linear equations Plotting with MatLab 2.3 Number 8-10 2.4 Number 1-21 2.5 Number 1-10 M2 Number 15-20 Week 3: Modeling DFIELD 3.1 Number 10, 12, 13 3.3 Number 3, 5 3.4 Number 1-10 M3 Number 1-12 Week 4: Numerical methods Second order equations Function m-files 6.1 Number 1-5 4.1 Number 1-20 4.3 Number 1-36 M4 Number 1-8, 17, 18 Week 5: Second order equations (cont) Review and Exam 4.4 Number 1-12,18-22 EXAM 1 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12 Week 6: More on second order equations 4.5 Number 1-29 4.6 Number 1-10 M5 Number 1-6 Week 7: Finish second order equations Introduction to systems 4.7 Number 3-6, 12-15 FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, APRIL 29 8:00-9:50 A.M. 8.1 Number 1-16 8.2 Number 13-16 (use PPLANE7) 8.3 Number 1-6 Week 8: Constant coefficient homogeneous 2x2 systems 9.1 Number 1-8, 16-23 9.2 Number 1-27, 58, 59 9.3 Number 1-23 Week 9: Inhomogeneous systemes: Undetermined coefficients and variation of parameters Nonlinear systems: equilibria, linearization, stability 9.9 Number 1-6, 12-15 10.1 Number 1-18 10.2 Number 1-4 Week 10: Nonlinear systems: nullclines Review and Exam 10.3 Number 1-16 EXAM 2 FRIDAY, MARCH 26 Week 11: Laplace transform 5.1 Number 1-29 5.2 Number 1-41 5.3 Number 1-36 Week 12: Laplace transform (cont.) 5.4 Number 1-26 5.5 Number 1-25 5.6 Number 1-9 Week 13: Finish Laplace transform Fourier series 5.7 Number 4-24, 26-31 12.1 Number 1-17 12.3 Number 1-32 Week 14: Heat equation Separation of variables Review 13.1 Number 1-9 13.2 Number 1-18