ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND LINEAR ALGEBRA
1. General Information
Course: Math 211-002, Fall 2007
Instructor: Sabin Cautis
Office: Herman Brown 432, x4053
Office Hours:
– Sabin Cautis in HB 432: Thursday 4-6pm.
– Jon Chaika in HB 42: Wednesday 8-9am and Thursday 10:45-11:45am.
• E-mail: scautis@rice.edu
• Website: includes syllabus, course schedule and homework assignments
http://www.math.rice.edu/∼sc5/math211/
• Text: Polking, Boggess and Arnold, Differential Equations, 2nd edition.
Poling and Arnold, Ordinary Differential Equations using MATLAB, 2nd edition.
Note: Any student with a disability requiring accommodation in this class is encouraged to contact
me after class or during office hours. Additionally, students should contact the Disabled Student Services
office in the Ley Student Center.
Homework: Homework will be assigned every week on Tuesday (with the exception of the first week)
and due the following Tuesday in class. Homework is not pledged. You may get help from any source.
However you are strongly encouraged to attempt the problems yourself before seeking assistance. Any
written work submitted must be your own. Your submitted work must be stapled together and should
have your name on every page. I will accept homeworks dropped off at my office before 1PM on the day
it is due, after that homework will be late. Late homeworks will not be accepted for credit.
Tests: There will be two midterm exams and a final exam. The tests will be closed book. Calculators
will not be allowed. The dates for the two midterms are: October 4th and November 8th. The exams will
be held during the 8:00-9:15 AM time period. The rooms for the exams will be announced in class.
Project: Topics for the project will be discussed later in the term. The project itself will be due on
the day of the final exam.
Grades: Grades will be computed as follows: Homework: 25 % (the lowest homework score will be
dropped), Midterms 30%, Project 10%, Final Exam 35%.
Help Sessions: Mondays 7-9pm in TBA.
Teaching Assistants:
• TBA TBA@math.rice.edu
Final Exam Policy: It is the policy of the mathematics department that no final may be given early
to accomodate student travel plans. We will not know when the final in this course will be scheduled for
some time. Therefore, if you should make plans to travel before the end of final exam period, and it turns
out that the final for this course is after your scheduled departure date, you will have to choose between
keeping your plans and receiving zero for the final, or incurring the costs for changing your plans and
taking the final at its scheduled time. Thanks for your understanding.
Note: Any student with a documented disability seeking academic adjustments or accommodations is
requested to speak with me during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain as confidential
as possible. Students with disabilities will need to also contact Disability Support Services in the Ley
Student Center.
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ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND LINEAR ALGEBRA
2. Schedule
Very rough course schedule, subject to later adjustments:
• Tue, Aug 28 sect. 2.1 and 2.2 Introduction
• Thurs Aug 30 sect. 2.3 and 2.4 Models of motion and Linear Equations
• Tue Sep 4 sect. 2.5 Mixing problems and word problems
• Thurs Sep 6 sect. 2.6 Exact Differential Equations
• Tue Sep 11 sect. 2.7 Existence and Uniqueness of solutions
• Thurs Sep 13 sect. 2.9 Autonomous equations and Stability
• Tue Sep 18 sect. 3.1 and 3.3 Modeling population growth and Personal Finance
• Thurs Sep 20 sect. 4.1 and 4.2 Second-order equations and systems
• Tue Sep 25 sect. 4.3 and 4.4 Linear homogeneous equations and harmonic motion
• Thurs Sep 27 sect. 4.5 and 4.6 Inhomogeneous equations and variation of parameters
• Tue Oct 2 sect. 4.7 Forced harmonic motion + Review
• Thurs Oct 4 First Midterm
• Thurs Oct 4 sect. 5.1 and 5.2 Basic properties of the Laplace transform
• Tue Oct 9 sect. 5.3 and 5.4 Inverse Laplance transform with applications
• Thurs Oct 11 sect. 5.5 and 5.6 Discontinuous forcing terms and the delta function
• Tue Oct 16 Recess break
• Thurs Oct 18 sect. 5.7 Convolutions
• Tue Oct 23 sect. Intro to Linear Algebra
• Thurs Oct 25 Linear Algebra
• Tue Oct 30 Linear Algebra
• Thurs Nov 1 Linear Algebra
• Tue Nov 6 Linear Algebra
• Thurs Nov 8 Second Midterm
• Thurs Nov 8 sect. 8.1,8.2 and 8.3 Geometric interpretation and qualitative analysis
• Tue Nov 13 sect. 8.4 and 8.5 Properties of linear systems
• Thurs Nov 15 sect. 9.1 and 9.2 Planar systems
• Tue Nov 20 sect. 9.5 and 9.7 Higher dimensional systems and qualitative analysis
• Thurs Nov 22 Thanksgiving
• Tue Nov 27 sect. 9.6 Exponential of a matrix
• Thurs Nov 29 sect. 9.8 and 9.9 Higher order and inhomogeneous linear systems
• Tue Dec 4 TBA
• Thurs Dec 6 Review