Math 53
Winter 2013

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Course Description,  Prerequisites and Other Courses

This is a first course in Ordinary Differential Equations. The material includes separation of variables; integrating factors and exact differential equations; systems of linear differential equations; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; the method of variation of parameters; the Laplace transform; systems of nonlinear differential equations, and conservation laws. This is a computation oriented course! If you are interested in a proof-oriented course on ordinary differential equations, you may want to consider taking Mathematics 53H.

Prerequisites: Mathematics 51 (or equivalent) You should be familiar with eigenvalues and eigenvectors. You should also know the standard tricks for computing integrals of functions of a single variable (integration by parts, substitution, etc), and be able to use them in practice.

Texts

The text for the course is "Differential Equations: An Introduction to Modern Methods and Applications" (2nd edition), by Brannan and Boyce.

Exams, homework and grading

There will be two midterm exams and a final exam, as well as weekly homework due on every Thursday (starting with week 2).

Homework is turned into the TA. Late homework will not be accepted, but the lowest homework score will be dropped. Grades will be based on the following percentages.

Help

You can attend the office hours of any of the instructors or TA. Also, SUMO provides tutoring for the math 50 series. You can find information about it here: SUMO tutoring.