Math 461 information

• Here is a schedule of which sections we will be covering when.
• Here is a syllabus. Following are the grading highlights:
• Tests: There will be a 200 point comprehensive final (5/18) and three 100 point hour exams (3/2, 3/30, 4/29).  On 3/28 we will vote whether to have each hour exam count 100 points or to reduce your lowest score by 25% and increase your highest exam score by 25%.  (So for example if your exam scores were 80, 70, and 60 your total would be 1.25*80+70+.75*60=215 rather than 210.  This will never decrease your score but could allow an inconsistent student a small advantage over a consistent student.)
  
• Matlab projects:  There will be seven matlab projects throughout the semester.  Your lowest score will be dropped. The remaining six scores will be multiplied by 1.25 for a total possible 150 points.
  
• Online quizzes:  There will be frequent quizzes which you will take online via WebCT, 5 points each scaled to a total of 150 points. I will drop 3 quizzes: your lowest quiz from chapters 1&2, your lowest from 3&4, and your lowest from 5,6,&7.
  
• Homework: I will assign regular homework from the text. It will be graded by request, but will not count directly in your grade.  However, to succeed in the course you must do the homework regularly.  Here is a list of homework problems.
• Midterm grades were calculated as follows:  5*[Exam 1]+2*[Quiz Total, chapter 1 through 3]+3.75*{[MATLB 1]+[MATLB 2]}. This gives a number out of 780.  I let A = 665-780, B = 575-664.9, C = 485-574.9, D = 395-484.9, F = 0-394.9.
  
• Here is the handout on hermitian inner products and Hermitian matrices etc.
  
• Matlab: You can run Matlab on university computers from your home computer.  To access matlab, telnet wam.umd.edu. At the unix command prompt type tap matlab.  Then type matlab at the prompt. This will allow you to enter commands to matlab, but you will not see any graphics output. Since we will not be using graphics output in this course, that is no big deal.  You can also run matlab at a computer lab. Information about computer labs where you can work on the matlab homework assignments is available here.  The math department has Matlab tutoring in the Parking Garage 2 WAM lab, see the schedule.  Some online resources are (oldy but goody) or here's another one and yet another.  
  
• Matlab assignment #1 due Feb. 8.
• Matlab assignment #2 due March 1.
• Matlab assignment #3 due March 8.
• Matlab assignment #4 due April 5.
• Matlab assignment #5 due April 19.
• Matlab assignment #6 due April 26 and here are answers.
• Matlab assignment #7 due May 10.
  

• Matlab assignment #1. Here is some matlab output for examples in the assignment.   Here are solutions.
  
• Matlab assignment #2.  Transpose and inverse.  Here are solutions.
  
• Matlab assignment #3.  blocks, LU decomp, det. Here are solutions.
  
• Matlab assignment #4. null space, rank.  Here are solutions.
  
• Matlab assignment #5.  eigenvalues. Here are solutions.
  
• Matlab assignment #6.  orth, QR,  least squares, SVD. 
  
• Exams: Unless significant fairness issues develop, you may use a calculator and may bring a 3x5 index card to consult during exams.
• Here is exam #1 and its solutions.
• Here is exam #2 and its solutions.  Grade distribution is:
• 100:     3
• 90-99:  4
  
• 80-89: 15
• 70-79: 17
• 60-69: 34
• 50-59: 28
• 40-49: 15
• 0-39:   18
• Here is exam #3 and its solutions.  Grade distribution is:
• 90-99:   9
• 80-89: 20
• 70-79: 13
• 60-69: 32
• 50-59: 31
• 40-49: 13
• 0-39:   13
  

• Here is an old exam of mine covering similar material to our test #1. 
  
• Here is an old exam covering some material in test #2 and here are solutions.  Here is some material on chapter 4, stolen from one of Dr. Lay's courses.   Here is an old mini exam on Chapter 4.
• Here and here are old exams covering mostly material from chapter 5.
• I did not find any sample exams like exam 3, but here are some old exams with appropriate problems. In this exam, look at all problems.  In this exam, look at problems 1-4, but I would not expect you to find the QR factorization in problem 1. Grade A students might try problem 6. (Note these courses used a different book with slightly different notation.  N(A) stands for the Null space of A.  Their P₄ is Lay's P₃.)  Another exam covering material from chapters 6 and 7 is  here.  See problems 1, 3, and 5 for exam 3 material.
  
• Here is a detailed list of material you will be responsable for on Exam 3:
• all 5.1 except difference equations on page 307
• all 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7
• The portion of 6.8 on Fourier series, p. 440-442
• You will not be responsible for the material in the handout on complex inner products.
• As usual, you may bring a 3x5 card and a calculator.
  
<>The final exam will be held in our usual lecture room PHY 1412 on Wednesday, May 18  from 8:00-10:00.  You may bring an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper to the exam (or if you wish you may bring four 3"x5" notecards instead).  You may bring a calculator.  Here and here are copies of old exams, just ignore the questions on Jordan canonical form.  Your exam may or may not bear any resemblence to those old exams. Here and here are other finals. You can also find final exams given by other instructors here but there may be even less resemblance to our final.  The final exam will cover all the sections in the book that we covered, with perhaps a slightly greater emphasis on chapter 7.  You will not be responsible for the handouts on hermitian inner products.  I will not ask you to write matlab code, but you may be asked to interperet matlab output. Here are answers to much of the above sample exams.