Math 308 A and D: Matrix Algebra: James King

Email: king@u.washington.edu Office: Padelford C440 Phone: 543-1915

Office Hours: Mon 1 - 2, Wed 1 - 2 and by appointment

Class Webpage: www.math.washington.edu/~king/coursedir/m308a12/

Class Email List: This list has been generated by the UW system. It will be used occasionally for information and announcements, but course information will mostly be found on the website and linked Catalyst pages. You should get a test email during the first week of class.

Nature of the Course: The mathematics of linear algebra is arguably the most useful mathematics subject for essentially all applications. We will learn some algorithms and solution methods in this course, but the focus even for practical applications is much more on some big mathematical ideas and concepts and less on the skills of hand computation than in some subjects. The modern uses of linear algebra and matrices are mostly to problems so large that they demand the use of computer tools, so it is the ability to understand and manage these tools that is needed, and this rests on conceptual understanding. So be aware that a great weight will be on concepts and “what-if” and not just solving problems by hand.

Textbook: Linear Algebra - A Modern Introduction by David Poole (3rd edition)

The course will cover most of Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and part of 7. (Students are assumed already to know the material of Chapter 1 from Math 126 or will be expected to learn it outside of class time). A detailed syllabus will be linked to the website.

Tests: There will be two Midterms and a Final Exam at the official UW times. There will also be a short quizzes (announced in advance) and in-class work that will sometimes be collected - perhaps graded or perhaps counted as participation(not announced in advance). The latter are mostly for me to get a sense of how the class is doing, but for students who are present and successful on these assessments, a modest number of points will be awarded.

Homework on WebAssign: Homework (or most of it) will be online homework on WebAssign. You will need to purchase a Webassign account. This can be done in two ways. If you buy the textbook from University Bookstore, the Webassign account is included. If you do not buy this textbook package, you can purchase an account when you log in to WebAssign. To log in, you wil go to

www.webassign.net/washington/login.html

and log in with your UW net id and password. This will take you into the usual UW login page and get you into WebAssign. You have a few days of free use before you have to pay, so you can log in right away.

Homework Schedule: Like all math courses, a linear algebra course is not a spectator event. So it is important to do lots of problems. This are your instructor's first classes with WebAssign, so we will be experimenting with the assignment schedule to find what seems to be most appropriate. But the best guess is that problems will be due twice a week and will be announced some days in advance, at least. You will be encouraged to do them as soon as possible.

Other Problems and Practice exercises: You will need to do more problems than the relatively small number on the homework in order to master this subject. In addition to problems to turn in, you will get suggestions for additional practice problems..

Other Possible On-Line Assessments: I may be assigning short questions/problems/quizzes online Catalyst WebQs as another form of practice and assessment, with the hope of stimulating thinking about sticky points in the subject.

Computing Technology: You should make friends with a calculator or software (on a computer or on a website) to do bigger, more complicated computations.

Grading Formula: Homework assignments = 12%, quizzes and in-class participation work (including WebQ) = 8%, Each Midterm = 22%, Final Exam = 36%

I will set the grade scale for the course at the end of the quarter. My preliminary estimate is that the scale will be linear, with 4.0 = 93% and 2.0 = 65%. The actual grading scale will be no tougher than this preliminary estimate, so your course grade will be at least as good as the preliminary scale indicates.