University of California, Berkeley
TTh 8-9.30am, 2040 VLSB (Lecture)
Th 9.30-11am, 81 Evans Hall (Discussion Section 103)
Th 11am-12.30pm, B56 Hildebrand (Discussion Section 106)
Instructor: Prof. Alexander Givental
GSI (+ office hours):
Email: ![[my email]](myemail.jpg)
Office: 853 Evans Hall
Office Hours: Monday 5-7pm, Wednesday 4-6pm All office hours will be held in 853 Evans Hall.
Content: From the online schedule: Matrices, vector spaces, linear transformations, inner products, determinants. Eigenvectors. QR factorization. Quadratic forms and Rayleigh's principle. Jordan canonical form, applications. Linear functionals.
(Required) Textbook: 'Linear Algebra', Givental (Available here)
Some supplementary textbooks: 'Linear Algebra Done Right' - Axler; 'Linear Algebra' - Friedberg, Insel, Spence; 'Linear Algebra' - Hoffmann, Kunze; 'Linear Algebra' - Lang. In addition to these textbooks, there are (literally) thousands of online notes available to you. Be warned, do not try to study from too many (ie >3) books; sometimes you need to sit and spend time thinking about the material and no amount of searching through textbooks will help you learn.
Course Website: Additional course information, including the grading policy for the course and the course syllabus. There is also a course Wiki.
In-class midterm during lecture meeting: Tuesday, October 7 2014, Material: Ch. 1-2 of textbook.
Final Exam: Wednesday, December 17 2014, 3-6pm Location to be announced
piazza.com There is a class forum at piazza.com, if you would like to added to this then please send me an email. Use this forum to ask any questions you have concerning the material covered during class and on any problems you have with homework; also, feel free to answer any questions you feel comfortable discussing with your fellow students. Try to be civil with each other!
Notes: I will post any (hopefully?) helpful notes I prepare and hand out during the semester here.
Extras: Here is some useful information on problem solving techniques given by the Hungarian mathematician George Polya.
Here are some useful notes written by Prof. George Bergman on basic mathematical language.
Here is some useful advice on how not to lose marks on exams by a former colleague Andrew Critch.
History: Here is an interesting article about the German mathematician Hermann Grassmann and his involvement in the development of linear algebra during the 19th Century.
Homework is due Thursdays at the beginning of the discussion section for which you are registered.
Late homework will not be accepted.
If you are unable to submit your homework at the required time then you can leave it outside my office (853 Evans Hall) at any time before it is due. Please email me if you intend to leave your homework outside my office.
Collaboration on homework is welcome and encouraged although if you are working with another student please state that you have done so (eg. if you work with E. Nother on a particular question just write "This question was completed with E. Nother."). However, all homework assignments must be written up individually. Failure to declare collaboration with another student will result in a grade penalty (and it is remarkably simple to tell when students have copied each other). Also, if you have used a textbook or online notes to help you understand/solve a problem please cite a reference (eg. if you used pages 52-60 of Prof. X's online lecture notes just write "This question used p.52-60 of Prof. X's online lecture notes, available at www.math.com/~profx/linalg)
Grading: Homework will be graded as follows: ???
Homework Assignments:
Graded problems in red
Here are the worksheets that are handed out during discussion section. You should use these worksheets to get extra practice at computations. They will also highlight various consequences of Theorems you will see in this course. If you have any questions on the worksheets then please get in contact with me; better still, ask a question at piazza.com (making sure to remember to state which problem you are working on!)