Ordinary Differential Equations
for Scientists and Engineers
Math 331 sec. 3, Fall 2009

Welcome to my differential equations class page !!
All class announcements and assignments appear here.

Information

Robin Young is the instructor. Here are my office hours.

Class meets : Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 pm in Goessmann Lab. Addtn, room 51.

The text is : "Elementary Differential Equations," 9th. ed.
by Boyce & DiPrima
Wiley, 2009.

Teaching Assistants:

Yannan Shen is the TA for my section.

You are welcome to attend any of the shared TA office hours:

Yannan Shen shen LGRT 1341 Monday 2:00--4:00,
Wednesday 2:00--4:00.
Sami Zreik zreik LGRT 1337 Tuesday 12:00--1:30,
Thursday 12:00--1:30.

TA email addresses are name<at>math<dot>umass<dot>edu.

Course work

Links to WeBWorK and regular assignments are posted on my assignments page.

We'll have a midterm and a final exam. The midterm will be Tuesday, October 20th, in class. Here's a practice exam. Here's the exam with solutions.

The final exam has been scheduled: it is Thursday, December 17th at 4:00 pm in Goessman A51. Near the time, I'll likely post a practice exam.

Grades will be based on assigned work and class interaction and participation. A possible rough breakdown of grades is : final 30%, midterm 25%, WeBWorK 20%, HW/quizzes 15% and class participation and demonstrated effort (subjective) 10%.

Technology

The use of mathematical software is appropriate, but you should be aware of what (and roughly how) the software you are using does. Ideally, you should be able to do simple examples of the same sort yourself (i.e. draw slope fields, compute Laplace transforms, etc.) You may use software such as Sage or proprietary programs, or you can use some of the many applets on the web.
Some useful websites:

Syllabus

Here's a detailed syllabus. We'll work through Boyce and DiPrima; I hope to cover Chapters 1-3 and 6-8.

Your Responsibilities

Please ask questions in and out of class. About assigned work: I will usually assign homework, and will collect it every three classes or so. There will usually be at least a week for each assignment. That said, start early and please turn it in on time! Be warned: the problem sets are longer than one night's worth of work, and need to be done as we cover the relevant coursework. We are all adults here, and it is your responsibility to come up with a system that works for you. I don't have the time, energy or desire to tell you which problems to do each night.

Remember that we learn best by doing, and so help your colleagues out as much as you can (with hints and discussion, not copies of solutions). I like a relaxed class with a lot of dialogue, but please do be sensitive to the mood and pace of the class.

Schedule

We will work steadily through Boyce & DiPrima, although I usually won't lecture directly from it. Be sure to read the book, and read ahead! In an ideal world, I'd try to spend approximately the following time on each chapter: This totals 11 1/2 weeks. Of course, how fast we go will evolve during the semester!
Please note that this is a guide only, and should not be taken as official!

maintained by Robin Young