Class: MWF in Keller 313, 11:30-12:20
Instructor: Tom Craven Phone: 956-4656 email: tom at math.hawaii.edu
Office hours: MWF 10:30-11:30, Tu 1:00-2:00
and by appointment in Keller 407
Class website: http://www.math.hawaii.edu/~tom/math411.html; you will
find a course syllabus and assignment list; later, grades will be posted here.
Text 1: Linear Algebra: An Introductory Approach, 4th ed. by Curtis
Text 2: A free online text; You can download the entire book or individual chapters as well as the answers to all
exercises.
Linear Algebra by Jim Hefferon.
Grades will be based on a modified curve depending on your total number of
points. The points come from
One midterm exam worth 25% of your grade
Final exam worth 35% of the grade
Homework and quizzes worth a total of 40% of the grade
Prerequisite: B in Math 311 or consent of the instructor.
References to a text are to Curtis unless otherwise specified. The elementary matrix manipulations and solutions of linear equations of Chapter 1 of the online text (parts of Chapter 2, Sections 6, 8 and 9 of Curtis) is assumed as a prerequisite; you should read Chapter 1 of Curtis as review also. The polynomial material of Chapter 6 will be discussed in the first week of class. After this, we will begin with the definition of a vector space over an arbitrary field (Chap. 2). We will do nothing involving field theory, choosing to work only with three common ones: the real numbers, complex numbers and the field with 2 elements (having applications in computer science). The course will cover all the interesting things in linear algebra that you probably have not yet seen: minimal polynomials, invariant subspaces and canonical forms of matrices, special linear transformations such as unitary, hermitian and normal, bilinear forms, dual spaces, etc. Some work may be done in infinite dimensional spaces as these are required to fully understand numerical analysis.
Withdrawals from the class are allowed through Friday, March 14, 2014.