Ma 232 Linear Algebra                                                         Darinka Dentcheva

Fall 2008                                                               darinka.dentcheva@stevens.edu

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Objective

 

The objective of this course is to introduce the students to linear algebra and demonstrate some of its applications. This course builds a foundation for many other courses in mathematics, as well as computational engineering, quantitative methods in finance and management.

 

Time and Place

 

Lectures take place on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 2—2:50 pm. in Babio 210.

 

Office hours

 

Mondays and Thursdays 3:00--4:00 pm. or by appointment, Peirce 302.

Tel: (201) 216-8640,  Fax: (201) 216-8321

 

Course Material

 

Linear Algebra and its Applications, Gilbert Strang, Fourth Edition, Thompson Brooks/Cole, 2006, ISBN-13: 978-0-03-010567-8; ISBN-10: 0-03-010567-6. 

Not all sections will be covered.

 

Graded work

 

Homework assignments will be given in most of the weeks to help you understand and apply the concepts and the theoretical results. In addition, two midterm exams and a final exam will be conducted. The solutions will be discussed in class.

 

The grade will be assigned according to the final score, which will be computed as follows:

Score  =  0.2 average(homework) + 0.2 exam 1 + 0.2 exam 2 +  0.4 final exam.

 

Final grade (tentative, subject to change)

 

Score

[90, 100]

[75, 90)

[60,75)

[50,60)

Grade

A

 B

C

D


Plan of lectures

 

Lecture

Date

Topic

1

Aug 25

Linear equations. Geometry.

2

Aug 28

Matrices and operations with matrices

3

Aug 29

Gaussian elimination

4

Sep 4

Examples Assignment 1

5

Sep 5

Triangular factors. Row exchanges and permutations

6

Sep 8

Inverses and transposes. The Gauss-Jordan procedure

7

Sep 11

Special matrices (HW1 due) Assignment 2

8

Sep 12

Vector spaces and subspaces

9

Sep 15

Examples

10

Sep 18

Linear independence (HW2 due) Assignment 3

11

Sep 19

Basis and dimension

12

Sep 22

The four fundamental subspaces for a system of linear equations.

13

Sep 25

Homogeneous and non-homogeneous systems of equations

(HW3 due)  Assignment 4

14

Sep 26

Fundamental relations. Existence of an inverse of a matrix

15

Sep 29

Applications

 

Oct 2

Exam 1 (HW4 due) Study guide 1  Sample Exam

16

Oct 3

Linear transformations

17

Oct 9

Matrix representation of some linear transformations   Assignment 5

18

Oct 10

Orthogonal vectors and subspaces

19

Oct 14[1]

Projections onto lines. Schwarz inequality

20

Oct 16

Projections onto subspaces  (HW5 due) Assignment 6

21

Oct 17

Projection and least squares problems

22

Oct 20

Orthogonal basis

23

Oct 23

Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure (HW6 due)

24

Oct 24

Examples Assignment 7

25

Oct 27

Some functional spaces

26

Oct 30

Determinants. Basic properties.

27

Oct 31

Formulae and expansion in cofactors (HW7 due) Assignment 8

28

Nov 3

Cramer’s rule

29

Nov 6

Review  (HW8 due)

 

Nov 7

Eigenvectors and eigenvalues

30

Nov 10

Diagonalization of a matrix Assignment 9

31

Nov 13

Exam 2  Study guide 2   Sample Exam

32

Nov 14

Examples

33

Nov 17

Positive definite matrices and quadratic forms

34

Nov 20

Test for positive definiteness.

35

Nov 21

Matrix norm and condition number

36

Nov 24

Computation of eigenvalues

37

Dec 1

Markov processes and matrices

38

Dec 4

Two-person games

41

Dec 5

Review

 



[1] Tuesday, Monday schedule