Class Homepage: Math 441

Instructor:

Dirk Hundertmark

  • Meetings: MWF 10:00-10:50 in 154 HENRY BLD and 12:00-12:50 in 141 ALTELD BLD
  • Office: 371 Altgeld Hall
  • Phone: (217) 333-4023
  • Office hours: W 3:30-4:30 pm in my office or room 345 Altgeld.
  • E-mail:   dirk at math dot uiuc dot edu
  • Grader: TBA

    • Textbook:

    Boyce, DiPrima, "Elementary differential equations and boundary value problems", 8th Edition.

    Homework assignments (follow the link).

    Syllabus:

    follow the link.

    Grading:

    Your score for the class will be (roughly) determined by: These numbers might change a bit but not much. If you get less than 50 % total point you fail. The grades are roughly determined by the ranges A: 100%--90%, B: 89%--77%, C: 76%--63% D: 63%--50%.

    Homework:

    1. Homework will be assignned (more or less) every week on Friday and will be due next Friday at the beginning of the class. Late homework will not be accepted unless there is a very good excuse (medical reason, or death in the family, ...). If you are not going to attend the class when homework is due, either have someone else bring in your homework, or put it in my mailbox before the day it is due.

    2. Althought the homework counts for a relatively small part of your grade I reccommend strongly that you regularly do the homework exercises. The homework is an extremely important and integral part of the course, since regular excercise is the only way to learn the material. Also, all the exams will be based on the material from the homework.

    3. You are encouraged to work together on the homework but everyone has to submit their own writeup of the homework assignments.

    Exams:

    There will be two one hour exams (or one one hour exam and one take home exam) and one three hour final exam during the semester. Each of the exams will contain problems, with some data modified, from the homework submitted before the exam.
    No notes, books or calculators on Exams. If you miss an Exam, contact me immediately to explain why. As a general rule, and similar to the homework assignments, you need a very good excuse to miss an exams (like medical reason, or death in the family, ...). Moreover, you should try hard to contact me in advance if you miss an exam.
    Vacation and leisure plans are never a valid excuse for failing to complete required work on time!

    Help:

    If you have any questions or need additional help, please contact me as soon as possible. You can come to see me during my regular office hours or call/e-mail me for an appointment. Please, do not wait until the last day before the exam to "figure it all out".

    IODE

    There is an ordinary differential equations package, written to run under Octave (or Matlab) called IODEwhich has been developed by Peter Brinkmann ,Robert Jerrard , and Richard Laugesen. You may find this package useful for many homework assignments, especially those which involve plotting slope fields, etc. You are heartily encouraged to experiment with this package.

    Last changes:  19 February 2006. Dirk Hundertmark