Math 308, Sections 506-507
Math 308, Sections 506-507
Differential Equations
Spring 2007
Final Exam Info
The final exam is on Tuesday, May 8:
- For Section 506 (the 1:50-2:40 class time), the exam is at 3:30-5:30 pm.
- For Section 507 (the 3:00-3:50 class time), the exam is at 10:30-12:30 pm.
If you have a university-approved reason to take the test at a different time
(such as 3 exams on the same day), send me an e-mail
at mbelk@math.tamu.edu.
Office Hours
I will have office hours on Saturday from 2-4 pm in Blocker 156, and
on Monday from 1-4 pm in Milner 122.
Final Exam Topics
- For loops in Matlab
- Solving differential equations with Taylor Series
- Separable or first order linear differential equations
- Euler's method
- Electric circuits (possibly a system)
- Mixing problem (possibly a system)
- Reduction of order
- Method of undetermined coefficients
- Laplace transform initial value problem (dirac delta or discontinuous function)
- Solving a system with eigenvalues and eigenvectors
- Direction field or phase line or phase plane
Practice Finals
Here are the two practice finals:
Here is the Table of Laplace Transforms that will be included on
final exam.
Practice Problems
In addition to the Practice Finals, previous problems from the tests, practice tests, and the syllabus
on the above topics are good practice problems.
Syllabus
The syllabus contains some suggested problems on the
most recent material (for loops, cosh and sinh, and Taylor Series).
Here are solutions to the even-numbered
suggested problems and to the Matlab for loop problems.
Announcements
Test 6 Solutions
Here are solutions to Test 6.
Chapter 4 Solutions
We are using a custom edition textbook, where Chapter 4 is from an earlier edition of the book. One result is
that the answers in the back of the book and the solution manual are not referring to the problems in
Chapter 4 of the textbook.
The following link contains solutions to some of the Chapter 4 problems:
If you have trouble with the above link, the following is a .pdf file of the Chapter 4 solutions:
Help Sessions
- There are Math 308
help sessions: Monday through Thursday, 7:30 - 9 pm in Blocker 112
- There are
MATLAB Help Sessions in Blocker 131 on Sunday 1-10 pm and Monday through
Thursday 7-10 pm.
- I have office hours Tuesday and Thursday 2-4 pm in Milner 122.
Syllabus
The Syllabus is a tentative schedule for the course,
including suggested practice problems. It will be updated throughout
the semester. I recommend checking the page regularly, and working the
suggested practice problems the week the material is covered in class.
Google Group
I have created a Google group this class.
You can view the group at
http://groups.google.com/group/math308.
Computer Access
- There are
MATLAB Help Sessions in Blocker 131 on Sunday 1-10 pm and Monday through
Thursday 7-10 pm.
- MATLAB is also available on PC's in TAMU open access labs (OALs).
- You can access your CalcLab account at any time from any of the OALs
by using the X-Win emulator.
Class on Wed.
In class on Wed, Feb. 7, we used Matlab to look at solutions to some
differential equations. The following link will take you to the exercises:
Course Information
Instructor:
Maria Belk (mbelk@math.tamu.edu)
Time and Room
- Section 506: MWF 1:50 pm - 2:40 pm in
Blocker 131
- Section 507: MWF 3:00 pm - 3:50 pm in
Blocker 131
Office Hours: (tentatively) Tuesday and Thursday 2 pm to 4 pm in Milner 122
First Day Handout
Test 6 Info
Test 6 Solutions
Here are solutions to Test 6.
The sixth test will be in class Wed, April 25. The sixth test will cover:
- The material in sections 9.1-9.3 and 9.5-9.6 in the NSS textbook.
- The material in Chapters 11 and 12 of the Matlab textbook. In particular, you will
want to know how to use Matlab to row reduce matrices, compute determinants, find nullspaces,
and compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
The suggested problems from Weeks 12 and 13 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Solutions to Practice Problems
Here are solutions to the Week 12 and
Week 13 suggested problems.
Test 5 Info
Solutions to Test 5
Here are Solutions to Test 5.
The fifth test was in class Wed, April 11. The fifth test will cover:
- The material in sections 7.4-7.8, 5.1-5.2, and 5.4-5.6 in the NSS textbook.
- The material in Chapter 7 of the Matlab textbook. In particular, the Matlab program pplane7.m.
You will need to have this programs in your calclab account. If you have not downloaded these programs, follow
these instructions to download it.
- You will also want to know how to use dsolve to solve systems of differential equations,
and you will want to know the commands laplace and ilaplace for taking Laplace transforms and
inverse Laplace transforms. (The command ilaplace is useful for checking your answer; you will not
be able to use it to do the problem. You must show your work on any problem requiring an inverse
Laplace transform.)
The suggested problems from Weeks 9, 10, and 11 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Here is the Table of Laplace Transforms that will be included on
Test 5. This table includes the Laplace transform of the unit step function and the Dirac delta function
in addition to the Laplace transforms from the table on Test 4.
Solutions to Practice Problems
Here are solutions to the Week 9, Week 10,
and Week 11 even-numbered suggested problems.
Office Hours
I will have office hours on Tuesday from noon to 5pm.
Information for Test 4
Solutions to Test 4
Here are Solutions to Test 4.
The fourth test was in class Wed, March 21 (the Wed. after spring break). The fourth test
covered:
- The material in sections 4.8, 4.9, 7.2, and 7.3 in the NSS textbook.
- The material in Chapter 5 of the Matlab textbook. In particular, the Matlab programs eul.m, rk2.m, and rk4.m.
You will need to have these programs in your calclab account. If you have not downloaded these programs
(or if you have accidentally deleted them), follow
these instructions to download them.
- Additionally, you are, of course, expected to know
the Matlab required for tests 1, 2, and 3 (Chapters 2 and 10 of the Matlab textbook and
Matlab commands for Test 1).
The suggested problems from Weeks 7 and 8 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Here is the Table of Laplace Transforms that will be included on
Test 4. You do not need to memorize any Laplace Transforms, as the table will be on the test.
Solutions to Practice Problems
.
Information for Test 3
Test 3 Solutions
Here are solutions:
Test 3 Statistics
The median on the test was 86 and the mean was 83. Here are some more statistics:
| Grade | A | B | C | D |
F |
| Score | 90-100 | 80-89 | 70-79 |
60-69 | < 60 |
| Number of Students | 41 |
31 |
15 |
8 |
6 |
Test 3 Info
The third test was in class Wed, Feb. 28. The third test covered:
- The material in sections 4.1-4.7 in the NSS textbook.
- You will want to be able to use the Matlab commands dsolve, solve, and ezplot. In particular,
you will want to be able to use dsolve to solve second and third order differential equations and initial
value problems, the solve command to find roots of polynomials, the solve command to solve systems
of linear equations (useful for solving for constants in an initial value problem), and ezplot
to plot solutions to differential equations. Additionally, you are, of course, expected to know
the Matlab required for tests 1 and 2 (Chapters 2 and 10 of the Matlab textbook and
Matlab commands for Test 1).
The suggested problems from Weeks 5 and 6 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Solutions to Practice Problems
.
Information for Test 2
Test 2 Solutions
Here are Solutions to Test 2.
Test 2 Statistics
The median was a 78, and the mean was 72.59. Here are more statistics:
| Grade | A | B | C | D |
F |
| Score | 90-100 | 80-89 | 70-79 |
60-69 | < 60 |
| Number of Students | 20 |
28 |
18 |
12 |
24 |
Test 2 Info
The second test was in class Wed, Feb. 14. The second test covered:
- The material in sections 2.6 and 3.1-3.5 in the NSS textbook.
The test did not cover Section 4.1.
- The material in Chapters 2 and 10 of the Matlab textbook. In particular,
you will want to be very comfortable with the commands
dsolve, int, solve, subs, and ezplot. You will of course also be expected to know the
commands from the first test:
Matlab commands for Test 1.
The suggested problems from Week 3 and 4 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests. You may also want to
look at the Exercises that we did in class on Wednesday.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Solutions to Practice Problems
There are solutions to the Week 3 and
Week 4 even-numbered suggested problems posted on the
syllabus.
If you have questions:
- You can post a question to the google group.
- There are Math 308
help sessions: Monday through Thursday, 7:30 - 9 pm in Blocker 112
- There are
MATLAB Help Sessions in Blocker 131 on Sunday 1-10 pm and Monday through
Thursday 7-10 pm.
- I have office hours Tuesday and Thursday 2-4 pm in Milner 122.
Information for Test 1
Solutions to Test 1
Here are the solutions to Test 1. The differences between the tests for the two sections are very minor, but you will
probably want to look at the test for your section.
Test 1 Statistics
The median was a 74, and the mean was 68.5. Here are more statistics:
| Grade | A | B | C | D |
F |
| Score | 90-100 | 80-89 | 70-79 |
60-69 | < 60 |
| Number of Students | 15 |
21 |
21 |
9 |
34 |
Test 1 Info
The first test was in class Wed, Jan. 31. For the first test, you need to know:
- The material in sections 1.1-1.4, 1D, and 2.1-2.4 in the NSS textbook.
- These Matlab commands.
- You will need the programs dfield7.m and eul.m for the first test.
If you have not downloaded these files to your calclab account,
follow these instructions to download the files.
The suggested problems from Week 1 and 2 of the syllabus are good
practice problems for the test, as are the problems on the Practice Tests.
Practice Tests
Here are 2 practice tests:
Solutions to Practice Problems
There are solutions to the Week 1 and
Week 2 even-numbered suggested problems posted on the
syllabus.
Here are the suggested practice problems
from the textbook Ordinary Differential Equations using MATLAB,
in case you do not have the MATLAB textbook.