Math 185: Introduction to Complex Analysis
Section 6 (41609), Spring 2018
Contents of this page
- News
- Lecture time and location
- Prerequisite
- Office hours
- GSI
- Text
- Syllabus
- Course plan
- Exams
- Grading policy
- Handouts
- Homework
- Piazza
News
- All class discussion has moved to the Piazza class page.
- (1/19) Homework 1 and reading assignment for next week have been posted.
- (1/13) Welcome to the web page of Math 185 for Spring
2018!
Lecture time and location
- TuTh 11:00-12:29 in 3107 Etcheverry
Prerequisite
- Math 104
Office hours
- Tuesdays 9:30-11:00, Thursdays 1:30-3:00 and by
appointment. At other times I will be answering questions on
Piazza.
GSI
- The GSI for this course will be Bryan Gillespie
(bgillespie@berkeley.edu). His office hours are:
- Wednesdays, 12-2 and 3-5 in 939 Evans
- Thursdays, 2-5 in 959 Evans
- Fridays, 2-5 in 939 Evans
Text
- Required: Donald Sarason, Complex Function
Theory, American Mathematical Society, second edition, ISBN-13:
978-0-8218-4428-1
Other recommended books:
- J. Bak and D. J. Newman, Complex Analysis, Springer
UTM, third edition, 2010
- J. W. Brown and R. V. Churchill, Complex Variables and
Applications, McGraw-Hill, ninth edition, 2013
- David C. Ullrich, Complex Made Simple, AMS GSM, vol. 97, 2008 (more advanced but beautifully written)
Syllabus
Analytic functions of a complex variable. Cauchy's integral theorem, power series, Laurent series, singularities of analytic functions, the residue theorem with application to definite integrals. Some additional topics such as conformal mapping.
- Course outline
Course plan
The plan is to cover most of Sarason's book, so the class will be
relatively fast paced. Each week I will assign the reading for the
following week, which you are required to do ahead of class.
You are welcome to supplement your reading by looking at other sources
such as the books recommended above.
# |
Week of |
Reading |
1 |
1/16 |
Chapter 1 |
2 |
1/23 |
Sections II.1-II.8 |
3 |
1/30 |
Sections II.9-II.16, III.1-III.5 |
Exams
There will be two in-class midterms and a final exam. The exam schedule:
- Midterm 1: Thursday, February 22
- Midterm 2: Thursday, April 5
- Final exam: Thursday, May 10, 8:00 AM -11:00 AM
- No make-up exams will be given. Note that the grading
policy allows (though not encourage) you to miss one midterm exam.
- Disabled students requiring accommodations should
contact the Disabled
Students' Program.
Grading policy
- The final grade will consist of four components:
- Homework 20%
- First midterm 20%
- Second midterm 20%
- Final 40%.
- Each of the above four grades will be curved into a number on
a consistent scale.
- Your lowest midterm grade will be replaced by the curved final
exam grade if it is higher.
- The four curved grades will be added up and converted into a
final course grade.
- Curving means that the difficulty of exams does not affect
your grade: if an exam is extremely difficult (highly unlikely), then
a lower score will be sufficient to get an A, while if an exam is
very easy (also unlikely), you might need a very high score to
get an A. After each midterm you will be given the letter grade cutoffs.
- Please note: incomplete grades, according to university
policy, can be given only if unantipicated events beyond your control
(e.g. a medical emergency) make it impossible for you to complete the
course, and if you are otherwise passing (with a C or above).
Handouts
- None yet.
Homework
There will be weekly homework assignments. You are welcome to work on
the homework collaboratively but I expect you to write your
solutions in your own words. I also encourage you to discuss homework
questions on Piazza.
# |
Due date |
Assignment |
1 |
1/25 |
Exercises I.4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 8.1, 8.2, 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, and 11.4 |
2 |
2/1 |
Exercises II.3.1 part (iii), II.6.1, II.6.2, II.6.3, II.8.1, II.16.1, II.16.4, II.16.5. |
Piazza
To handle questions posed outside of class, we will be using Piazza, a free platform for instructors
and GSIs to efficiently manage out-of-class Q&A. On the class
dashboard, students can post questions and collaborate
Wikipedia-style to edit responses to these questions. Instructors can
also answer questions, endorse student answers, and edit or delete
any posted content. Instead of emailing me math questions, I
encourage you to post them to Piazza. One of many great things about
Piazza is that it supports LaTeX.
Each student will be invited to join Piazza by email. Please join
it as soon as you can, as I plan to use Piazza extensively. I will
not be using bCourses (unless convinced otherwise).
Instead of sending me email, please create a post on Piazza with
your question or concern. Private or anonymous post are fine, though
they should be used rarely.
Top answerers on Piazza will receive extra credit.
© Slobodan
N. Simić 2018
Last modified: Wed Feb 21 20:02:49 PST 2018