Math 442 Test 2, Spring 2008

Take home test, worth 20%.
Pick up the test from my office 376 Altgeld, Tuesday 1 April 4:30-5:00pm .
Turn in the test to my office 376 Altgeld, Wednesday 2 April before 5pm.

You may not communicate in any way with any person, about the content of the test. Exception: you may ask me for clarification of test questions.

While working on the test, you may use books, notes, and written materials, but no electronic resources or devices.

Study session Monday 31 March 4:30-5:30pm, in 345 Altgeld.
Office hours Tuesday 1 April 4-5pm, Wednesday 2 April 1-2pm (instead of class).

Material
Sections 3.1-3.4, 4.1-4.2, 5.1-5.6, and all related homework. Use the Reading Guides, your lecture notes, and homework as a guide to the emphasis you should place on the various topics. Some test questions will build on the homework. Some questions will be new.

How to study

• First make summary notes of the important ideas and methods from each section. This effort helps you prepare, even for a take-home test!
• Ask yourself questions like "how do I solve the diffusion/wave equation on the whole line? on the half-line? on the interval?"
• And "what do I do in each situation if the boundary conditions are nonhomogeneous? if the equation is nonhomogeneous?"
• Where relevant, express the conclusions of each section as algorithms or checklists: step 1, step 2, and so on, so that you have a plan of action for each type of problem.
• If you just work problems without first making summary notes, you will probably be wasting your time, because you won't have a mental framework into which to fit the examples you are working.
• Re-work all homework problems, and in-class problems.
• Work through relevant examples and exercises in the text.
• Ask the professor about anything you do not understand.

A few specific points:

• Section 3.2: we did not cover the "Finite Interval" part of this section.
• Section 3.3: the "temperature underground" problem was covered in class (it's not in Strauss).
• Section 5.3: we ignored the Robin boundary conditions, except for one homework problem. Also, we covered most of Section 5.3 (including Theorem 1) in the Day 21 Orthogonality Supplement rather than using the textbook.