MAT 285 Differential Equations
This course is offered with an adoption of OER (Open Education Resources) meaning the course materials are provided to students at no additional cost other than tuition. The OER adoption is supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation through Z-Degree Mississippi.
Textbook
There is no particular textbook I use for the course. Instead my lecture notes will be available online. Some useful references listed below.
References
- Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Erwin Kreyszig, Wiley
- Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Peter V. O'Neil, WadsWorth
- Elementary Differential Equations, 11th Edition, William E. Boyce, Richard C. Diprima, B. Meade, Wiley
- Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 6th Edition, George B. Arfken, Hans J. Weber, Frank Harris, Academic Press. 7th Edition is available online at ScienceDirect through the library's subscription. 5th Edition hardcopy is available for check-out at the Gulfcoast campus library.
- Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers, Stanley J. Farlow, Dover Publications
Topics
Prerequisites
MAT 280 Calculus IV (Multivariable Calculus). MAT 169 Calulus III is acceptable if you are taking MAT 280 concurrently. Although not required, MAT 326 Linear Algebra is helpful if you have taken it. In any event, I will discuss some basic linear algebra when needed.
Class Meeting Times and Class Room
Office Hours
Grading
SageMath
Math Discussion Outside of Class
Weekly Schedule
First-Order Differential Equations, Second-Order Linear Differential Equations, Systems of First-Order Linear Equations, The Laplace Transform, Numerical Methods, Partial Differential Equations (only a tidbit), Series Solutions, Special Functions, Nonlinear Differential Equations and Chaos
Monday/Wednesday 11:30am-1:00pm in WSB 227
Monday/Wednesday 2:30pm-3:30pm, Friday 11:00pm-12:00pm, and by appointment
4 Take-home Exams. No Final Exam. After all 4 Exams are taken, the lowest grade will be replaced by the average of the lowest exam grade and the highest exam grade, and the average of the replacement grade and the other 3 exam grades will be the final grade for the course.
SageMath is an open source math software application. You can download and install SageMath in your computer for free at its Donwload page for Windows, Apple Mac OS X, or Linux Binaries. The binaries will work well on most computers but for some reason if it doesn't, you will have to build it from its source code. The source code (stable) can be downloaded from here.
If you have questions regarding the course material, you can use the comments section of each lecture to post your questions. In order to post your comments or questions you need to register for the site Mathphys Archive first. The registration is easy and quick. You are also encouraged to help your peer student if you can. You don't have to be afraid to get wrong as I can always step in if needed. Please do not post any irrelevant or non-math related comments or questions there. On Mathphys Archive you can write math expressions using LaTex codes. To include LaTex code in your posts and comments, use:
$your-LaTex-code-here$
You can find a list of Latex codes for math symbols here. You may practice your LaTexing here.Click on linked topics to view lecture notes. Our class begins on Monday 1/28.