AMATH 403/503: Methods for Partial Differential Equations
Location/Time: 1:30-2:20, MTWF, LOW 216
Instructor: Dr. Andrea Barreiro
Email: barreiro@amath.washington.edu
Phone: (206) 543-6658
Office Hours: 418D Guggenheim Hall, TBA
Teaching Assistant: Vishal Vasan
Email: vishal.vasan@gmail.com
Office Hours: TBA
Course Sections
403 is for undergraduate credit, and 503 is for graduate credit. The only difference is
that grades for the two groups may be curved differently at the end of the quarter.
There are several sections for this course: please be mindful of which you are enrolled in.
A. 403A and 503A are in-class sections.
B. 503B is an EDGE (distance learning) section. You should take your exams with a
proctor that you have arranged with the EDGE office.
C. 403C and 503C are virtual sections. You should take your exams with the rest of the
class (a second room will be provided), but should watch lectures outside of class.
Access to online lectures
This class is taped and made available by streaming video and to download. All
registered students will have access to these videos. A link to the EDGE site that hosts
these videos will be given on the first day of class. After approximately two weeks,
videos will be password protected.
Course Website
The course website will be hosted on Catalyst: https://catalyst.uw.edu/workspace/
akb6/20290/. This can also be navigated to from your MyUW page.
If you are enrolled in the course, you should be automatically granted access.
Course Description
Applications of partial differential equations; basic solution techniques for parabolic,
elliptic, and hyperbolic equations; Green's functions and integral transform methods;
linear and quasilinear first order equations, characteristics, shocks. Prerequisite: AMATH
402.
This course is intended for advanced undergraduates and/or master’s students, including
those for whom this is their first serious exposure to partial differential equations. The
course includes an extra hour for recitation (when the focus will be on review or
homework problems rather than new material), which will usually occur on Tuesdays and
will usually be led by Mr. Visan.
Textbook
Applied Partial Differential Equations, Richard Haberman, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004,
4th Ed.
Schedule
Week
Homework
Quizzes
Material*
1:
3/28-4/1
HW #1 assigned - 3/29
Intro to PDEs; Fourier series
2:
4/4-4/8
HW #1 due - 4/8
Separation of variables for heat and wave
equations
NO CLASS 4/5
Laplace’s equation
3: 4/11-4/15
HW #2 assigned – 4/13
4: 4/18-4/22
HW #2 due – 4/22
5: 4/25-4/29
HW #3 assigned – 4/27
Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problems
6: 5/2-5/6
HW #3 due – 5/6
Higher dimensional problems
7: 5/9-5/13
HW #4 assigned – 5/11 Quiz #2: 5/13 Infinite domains/Fourier transform
8: 5/16-5/20
HW #4 due – 5/20
Characteristics, 1st order hyperbolic
9: 5/23-5/27
HW #5 assigned – 5/25
Green’s functions
10: 5/30-6/3
HW #5 due – 6/3
Quiz #1: 4/22 Inhomogeneous problems
Quiz #3: 6/3 NO CLASS 5/30 – Memorial Day
* The material covered is approximate. Please consult the official class website as the
quarter progresses for updated information. Dates for homeworks and quizzes will be as
stated here, barring exceptional circumstance.
Grading
You will be graded on three quizzes (20% each), and 5 homework assignments (40%).
There will be no comprehensive final.
Homework will be due by 5 pm on the day it is due. There will be a mailbox provided
outside of the Applied Mathematics department office. You can also submit electronically
at the course website.
EDGE students only: You also have the option of submitting your homework through the
EDGE office. This will delay return of your graded homework, because of processing
delays: website submission is recommended!
Late homework will not be accepted, but I will drop your lowest score at the end of the
quarter.
A couple of notes about grading: the Instructor/TA/Grader may grade a subset of
problems that were assigned, so it is to your advantage to do all of the problems. Your
homework should be neat and readable: points may be deducted if we can’t read your
solutions.