Math 214 Elementary Differential Equations

Matt Holzer Exploratory Hall 4458 mholzer@gmu.edu phone TBD (email is better anyways) Office hours Tuesday 2-3, Thursday 11-12, M 1-2, others by appointment TA: Hasitha De Silva Exploratory Hall 4310. Time and Location: TR 9:00-10:15 Music Theatre 1005 Text: Boyce and DiPrima. Elementary Differential Equations. 9th Edition. Course Description: Differential equations play an integral role in the modeling of physical processes and arise in applications across engineering and the sciences. This course is an introduction to ordinary differential equations. One emphasis will be explicit solution techniques, however, a qualitative understanding of the solutions of differential equations will also be important. Topics to be covered include first and second order equations, Laplace transforms and general linear systems. We will cover chapters 1-3 and 6-7 with some other topics as well. Midterm Exams: Tuesday September 23rd and Thursday October 31st. Final Exam: Thursday December 12th 7:30-10:15am. Homework: Problems from the book will be assigned after lecture and it is expected that all students will complete these problems. These problems will not be collected or graded. Exams: There will be two midterm exams and a comprehensive final. See dates and times above. Group assignments: A significant piece of this course is group project assignments. These projects will assigned in recitation on Friday with a report due the following Friday at the start of recitation. Attendance at the recitation section is mandatory! Groups of 3-4 individuals will be assigned and rotated throughout the semester. Roles within the group will be assigned to ensure accountability but it is the responsibility of all group members to contribute to all aspects of the assignment. The roles are Manager Responsible for coordinating meeting times and ensuring that all work is completed in a timely manner. Editor Responsible for the completion and quality of the final product.

Recorder Will record and submit a short note with the final product stating the total time required to complete the assignment and an account of who within the group was responsible for each part of the submission.

The final product will be a report (preferably typed) with a title, abstract (short description of the project and outcomes), introduction, outcomes, conclusion, references (if applicable) and an appendix (containing computer code or long calculations). The report should contain all relevant material and discussion but should also be concise. Letter grades will be assigned and determined based upon the quality of exposition and insightfulness and accuracy of the mathematics. Notes: You must attend recitation to participate in the group projects. Absence without an acceptable excuse will result in a zero. Matlab: The use of Matlab or similar programs will be necessary for some of the group projects. Grading: Grades will be figured giving 20% weight to each midterm, 30% weight to the final and 30% weight to the group projects. The worst group homework grade will be dropped. University Policies: All students are expected to abide by the University Honor Code. Any violations of this code will be taken seriously and dealt with in the appropriate manner. Please use your gmu email address when communicating with me! Additional Resources: Help is available in the Mathematics Tutoring Center, located in the Johnson Center room 344. The writing center may also be of use.