Math 2584, Spring 2016

Homework assignments and important dates

Useful documents and links

• Professor Barton’s notes on inverse functions, trigonometry, and exponentials (PDF file)
• Some direction field and phase plane plotters:
  • http://math.rice.edu/~dfield/dfpp.html. This is a particularly nice direction field plotter because you can click on a particular initial point and it will show you the solution; however, it does require you to download a file rather than running in a browser.
  • Professor Barton's direction field plotter
  • Professor Barton's phase plane plotter
  • http://www.directionfield.com/. A very simple direction field plotter; this one will work on the iPad. Beware: this one is very finicky about its input. (For example, you must type "3*x" and not "3x", and "pow(x,2)" and not "x^2".)
  • http://www.mathscoop.com/calculus/differential-equations/slope-field-generator.php Another direction field plotter that works on the iPad; this one is less finicky but has a number of annoying advertisements on the web page.

Course Information

Course Description: First and second order ordinary differential equations, the Laplace transform, and matrix systems of ordinary differential equations.

Prerequisites: MATH 2564 with a grade of C or better.

Text: Differential Equations with Boundary-Value Problems, Eighth Edition, by Dennis G. Zill and Warren S. Wright.

Homework: Assignments will be posted to this course website. The complete assignment will be posted at least four days before the due date. Each week you will be assigned a number of self-checked problems and a smaller number of instructor-corrected problems. You are encouraged to work together on homeworks, but you must write up your solutions independently.

Instructor-corrected problems should be turned in for grading on the due date. We expect you to turn in your homework in class; if you cannot make it to class, either ask a classmate to turn in your homework for you or ask Rusty Permenter if he will accept homework at some other time. Late homework will not be accepted except in the case of a medical or other unforeseeable emergency; if you will be absent on the due date, consult with Rusty Permenter and arrange to turn homework in early.

Self-checked problems will not be graded and need not be turned in. You will be able to check your answers by looking at the answers given in the back of the book. It is important that you do these problems; you will learn the material much better if you practice it by doing all problems, and material covered only on self-checked problems and not on instructor-corrected problems will still appear on the midterm tests and final exam.

I expect to have 11 assignments over the course of the semester; your two lowest scores will be dropped and the remaining 9 assignments will comprise 20% of your course grade.

Tests: There will be three midterms tests and a final exam. I plan to hold midterm exams during class time Weeks 5, 9 and 13, on February 19, March 18 and April 22.

The final exam will occur in our regular classroom at the time indicated on the registrar’s website.

Make-up exams will only be given in exceptional circumstances (at the instructor’s discretion), and then only when notice is given to the instructor beforehand and a suitable written excuse forthcoming.

If you require extra accommodations on an exam, notify your instructor as soon as possible, but in all cases at least one week before the exam is to be held.

Course grade: Here is how I plan to weigh your grades:

Incompletes: Only given in extreme circumstances, and only when the student has satisfactorily completed all but a small portion of the work in the course. Students must make prior arrangements with the professor well before the end of the semester.