Here BD refers to Boyce and Di Prima, 8th edition, and DM refers to Differential Equations with MATLAB, 2nd edition. We will cover most of the books except for BD, Ch. 4-5 (and Ch. 10-11 if you have the and Boundary Values Problems edition) and for DM, Ch. 11, which we'll skip.
Reading assignments are given in both the BD and DM texts. The problem assignments in BD are only advisory and are not to be turned in, but quizzes closely modeled on these problems will be given in the recitation sections. MATLAB homework from DM will be collected and graded. It should be turned in as a (printed or electronic) "published" M-file or M-book. (See DM, Ch. 4 for an explanation.)
You may (should!) work on the homework problems, especially the MATLAB problems, in groups. Please make sure you only collaborate with other students with the same TA. (No more than three students to a group, please!) In order to receive credit, the name of every member of the group must be included in the submission. In particular, names must be typed in a comment line of the solution M-file or in a text cell in the solution M-Book. A homework group should submit only one copy of an assignment, and all members of a homework group will receive identical grades for that assignment. Each homework submission should adhere to the university honor pledge, and preferably should contain a copy of the pledge. MATLAB homework may be submitted electronically here, instead of submitting a written printout. This saves us and you paper, expense, and grading time. (Note: if you submit a published M-file electronically, you must submit not only the html file but also the figures that go with it. The easiest way to do is to tar or zip all the files together.)
The problems listed here are the minimum amount you should do to acquire proficiency in the material of this course. In addition to the assigned problems from BD, you should solve as many additional problems (selected from among those for which there is a solution in the back of the book) as you feel is necessary in order to become comfortable with the techniques introduced in that part of the book.
A note about the exams: The exams will cover the material in both texts, but will not test MATLAB coding ability. Thus there maybe questions asking you to interpret MATLAB output, but there will not be any questions asking you to write down a MATLAB command to compute such-and-such. For a big collection of old exams to study from, see the departmental testbank and search with "Course" set to the option "MATH246". Calculators are allowed on the exams. See here for more information.
| Week | Subject | Reading | Suggested Boyce Homework | MATLAB Homework |
| 1/26-1/28 | Intro to MATLAB and to ODEs | BD, Ch. 1; DM, Ch. 1-4 | 1.1, #3, 15-20, 22, 25; 1.2, #6, 7; 1.3, # 7-9, 21-22. | Problem Set A (all), due 2/1. We will check off that you did it but not assign a grade. |
| 1/31-2/4 | First Order ODEs | BD, 2.1-2.3; DM, Ch. 5 | 2.1, #13, 15, 27; 2.2, #5-7; 2.3, #7, 16 | Problem Set B, #2 and #6, due 2/8. |
| 2/7-2/11 | Theory of First Order ODEs | BD, 2.4-2.6; DM, Ch. 6 | 2.4, #3-5, #14, #27; 2.5, #4-7, #11-14; 2.6, #1-3, #25-28. | Problem Set B, #4 and #12, due 2/15. |
| 2/14-2/18 | Numerical Methods | BD, 2.7-2.8 and 8.1-8.3; DM, Ch. 7 | 2.7, #11-13; 8.1, #1a-b, #25b; 8.3, #1-3. | Problem Set C, #2, 11d, 14, due 2/22. |
| 2/25 (Fri.) | First Exam (on BD, Ch. 1, 2, 8; DM, Ch. 5-7) | |||
| 2/21-2/25 | Intro to Second Order ODEs | BD, 8.5, 3.1; DM, Ch. 8, 9 | 8.5, #1, 2; 3.1, #1-3, 9-12. | Problem Set C, #18, 19, due 3/1. |
| 2/28-3/4 | Second Order ODEs | BD, 3.2-3.4; DM, Ch. 10 through 10.2 | 3.2, #1-4, #13-14, #16, #28-30; 3.3, #2-3, #15-17, #22; 3.4, #17-20. | Problem Set D, #2, 12, due 3/8 |
| 3/7-3/11 | Second Order ODEs | BD, 3.5-3.7; DM, 10.3-10.4 | 3.5, #1-5, #23-27; 3.6, #1-7, #28; 3.7, #5,# 7, #12-15. For help with 3.6, here is a solution to 3.6, #20, using MATLAB. For help with 3.7, here is a sample problem solved with MATLAB. | Problem Set D, #5, 8, due 3/15 |
| 3/14-3/18 | Second and Higher Order ODEs | BD, 3.8-3.9, 4.2 | 3.8, #7, #13-14; 3.9, #17; 4.2, #39 | Problem Set D, #15, due 3/29 |
| 3/21-3/25 | Spring Break, no class | |||
| 3/28-4/1 | Intro to Laplace Transforms | BD, 6.1-6.2 | 6.1, #11-19 (odd); 6.2, #4, #8, #11-13. | none |
| 4/1 (Fri.) | Second Exam (on BD, Ch. 3; DM, Ch. 8-10) | |||
| 4/4-4/8 | Laplace Transforms | BD, 6.3-6.6; DM, Ch. 12 | 6.3, #7, #14; 6.4, #9-10; 6.5, #7-9; 6.6, #8, #13. For help with 6.4, here is a sample problem solved with MATLAB. | Problem Set E, #10d-e, 13c-e, 17, due 4/12 |
| 4/11-4/15 | Intro to Linear Systems | BD, 7.1-7.4; DM, Ch. 13 through 13.2 | 7.1, #1, #8; 7.3, #15, #17, #24; 7.4, #4. For help with linear systems, here are sample homogeneous systems (of all three generic 2×2 types) solved with MATLAB. | Problem Set F, #2, 3a, due 4/19 |
| 4/18-4/22 | Linear Systems | BD, 7.5-7.9; DM, 13.3 | 7.5, #1-3; 7.6, #1, #13, #26; 7.7, #1-3; 7.8, #1-2; 7.9, #1, #7. | none |
| 4/27 (Wed.) | Third Exam (on BD, Ch. 6-7; DM, Ch. 12-13) | |||
| 4/25-4/29 | Intro to Nonlinear Systems | BD, 7.7-7.8, 9.1-9.2 | 9.1, #9, #13; 9.2, #7-11. | Problem Set F, #5, due 5/3 |
| 5/2-5/6 | Nonlinear Systems | BD, 9.3-9.6; DM, Ch. 14 | 9.4, 1-3; 9.5, #1-3. For help with this material, see these two worked-out examples done with MATLAB: | Problem Set F, #8, 9, due 5/10 |
| 5/9-5/11 | Nonlinear Systems | BD, 9.7-9.8 | 9.7, #1-3 | none |
| 5/13 (Fri.), 10:00-12:00 | Review Session, Francis Scott Key 0106 | |||
| 5/16 (Mon.), 1:30-3:30 | Final Exam (cumulative). See the link for room assignments. | |||