Math 221 Fall 2019

Linear Algebra and Aplications

Professor: William Pardon, Physics Building, room 219, 660-2838, wlp@math.duke.edu

Text: Linear Algebra: A Geometric Approach (second edition), by Theodore Shifrin and Malcolm R. Adams. It is essential to carefully read the relevant sections of the book as we cover them in class; there will be topics from the text that are not discussed in detail in class.

Office Hours: Tuesday, TBD and by appointment. You may also e-mail questions to me. Please take full advantage of office hours to resolve questions on course material or homework.

Lectures: Wednesday and Friday, 1:25-2:40, 119 Physics Building. You are expected to attend all lectures and to be on time.

Course Grade: Your final letter grade will be based on homework (15%), two in-class exams (25% each), and the final exam (35%).

Homework: Homework will be assigned at the end of each lecture. (You should also read the section preceeding each problem.) Homework will be collected at the beginning of the next class; unexcused late homework will not be accepted. Before class, please staple all pages of your problem set together and clearly mark it with your name and the date.

Quizzes: The possibility of an occasional unannounced quiz is not excluded.

In-Class Exams: There will be two such exams. The first exam will be on Wednesday 4 October or Friday 4 October, the second exam will be on Friday 22 November.

Final Exam: The final exam will be held on Sunday 15 December, 7-10PM in 119 Physics.

Written Work: All submitted work (homework, quizzes, and exams) should be written neatly and legibly. Multiple page submissions must be stapled. You must show all your work to receive credit for a problem. For proofs (problems containing the words "prove" or "show") it is imperative to write in complete sentences.

Missed Work: Late homework will not be accepted. Unexcused missed exams may not be made up. For the following situations, a personal emergencies, an incapacitating illness, a religious holiday, or varsity athletic participation, please see the indicated web-page for the procedures that must be followed.

Electronic Devices: You may use computational aids for the homework. However, all electronic devices may be switched off during quizzes, exams, and during class.

Ethics: Students are expected to adhere to the Duke Community Standard. You must reaffirm your commitment to these standards on all work. You may (and are encouraged to) discuss issues raised by the class or the homework problems with your fellow classmates and both offer and receive advice. However, submitted homework must be written up individually without consulting anyone else's written solution, and you must acknowledge any collaboration. For quizzes and exams, you must work completely independently without collaboration with others and without consulting notes or books.

Class Web Page: The official source of information for this class (outside of lecture) is https://services.math.duke.edu/~wlp/221.17/syl.html The class schedule and assignments, handouts and other important information may be found there. This link is accessible only from computers connected to Duke's network.

Further Homework Advice

We will be covering most of the sections in the text. The topics covered and problems assigned for each lecture will be posted below and updated as the semester progresses. Tentative assignments and lecture topics for future dates may also be posted, so be sure to check this page to see if they have changed. The page should automatically refresh each time you access it.

The lectures and the text complement each other; they do not duplicate each other. You are expected to read and study the text as we go along. Whether you study the text before or after the lecture is up to you; the best approach is to do both.

Read and study the text carefully before attempting an assignment. Make sure you fully understand the given definitions, theorems, proofs, and examples. If you have trouble understanding something in a problem or the text after working on it a while, see me in office hours or e-mail me.

Assignments are due at the beginning of class.



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