| Instructor: | Gregor Kovacic Office: Amos Eaton 419 Phone: 276-6908 Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10:00-11:00 AM E-mail: kovacg at rpi dot edu |
| Teaching Assistant: | Chad Williams
Office: Amos Eaton 429 Office hours: TBA E-mail: willic at rpi dot edu |
| Lectures: | Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9:00-9:50 AM, DCC 330 |
| Recitations: | Section 1: Tuesday, 2:00-2:50 PM, Sage 2112 Section 2: Friday, 2:00-2:50 PM, Sage 2112 Section 3: Tuesday, 9:00-9:50 PM, JEC 3207 Section 4: Friday, 9:00-9:50 PM, Science Center 2C22 |
| Supplemental Instruction: | Wednesday, 5:00-5:50 PM, Amos Eaton 214 |
| Class Notes: | 1st Order, 2nd Order, Fourier Series and Partial Differential Equations, 2X2 Linear Systems, Laplace Transforms. |
| Text: | Boyce
and DiPrima,
Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems.
Any edition will do. (You can get old editions of this book at abebooks.com for as low as $1.) |
There will be three in class, hour-long exams, given most probably during the following weeks:
| Exam 1 | In class, Thursday, February 17 |
| Exam 2 | In class, Thursday, March 31 |
| Exam 3 | In class, Wednesday, May 4 |
| Final Exam | Tuesday, May 10, 6:30-9:30 PM in DCC 308 |
There will also be an optional three-hour final exam during the finals period for those students who will not be happy with their previous grades. The rules for and implications of taking this final exam are explained below.
Here, you will find a number of old exams.
Copying from fellow students' work during an exam is a breach of academic integrity, and will not be tolerated.
Only students with notes from the Dean of Students will be allowed to take makeup exams.
Suggested homework can be found at the URL http://www.rpi.edu/~kovacg/classes/diffeq/2400HW.html
These homework problems are representative of what will be on the exams.
Additional representative problems from the 7th edition of Boyce-DiPrima textbook are presented here:
| Section | Page | Problems |
| 1.1 | 8 | 4, 6, 9, 12, 16, 17 |
| 1.3 | 22 | 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 18, 20, 26 |
| 2.1 | 38 | 2, 4, 12, 18, 20, 26, 28, 32 |
| 2.2 | 45 | 2, 4, 11, 14, 15, 22, 27 |
| 2.3 | 57 | 2, 3, 6, 9, 15, 18, 19, 20, 23 |
| 2.5 | 84 | 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 22, 23 |
| 3.1 | 136 | 1, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17, 20, 21 |
| 3.2 | 145 | 3, 8, 11, 18, 21, 24 |
| 3.3 | 152 | 2, 3, 13, 16, 20, 24 |
| 3.4 | 158 | 2, 8, 10, 11, 18, 19, 24, 27 |
| 3.5 | 166 | 2, 4, 7, 11, 14, 16, 28, 38 |
| 3.6 | 178 | 4, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 19, 21, 23 |
| 3.7 | 188 | 3, 5, 6, 8, 15, 17 |
| 3.8 | 197 | 2, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 21, 24, 27 |
| 3.9 | 205 | 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 17 |
| 7.1 | 344 | 2, 3, 7, 14, 17, 21 |
| 7.2 | 355 | 22, 24 |
| 7.3 | 366 | 6, 7, 15, 16, 23, 24 |
| 7.4 | 371 | 2, 4, 5, 6 |
| 7.5 | 381 | 3, 5, 7, 12, 16, 24, 25, 30 |
| 7.6 | 390 | 1, 3, 4, 9, 13, 16, 29 |
| 9.1 | 468 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17 |
| 9.2 | 477 | 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13 |
| 9.3 | 487 | 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 25 |
| 9.4 | 501 | 3, 4, 5, 12 |
| 9.5 | 509 | 1, 3, 4, 8, 12 |
| 9.7 | 530 | 1, 2, 3, 14 |
| 9.8 | 538 | 1, 2, 6, 7 |
| 10.1 | 547 | 2, 4, 7, 11, 12, 16 |
| 10.2 | 555 | 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22 |
| 10.3 | 562 | 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 |
| 10.4 | 570 | 7, 14, 15, 21, 23, 27, 38, 39 |
| 10.5 | 579 | 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18, 20, 22 |
| 10.6 | 588 | 3, 4, 7, 11, 13, 15 |
| 10.7 | 600 | 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13 |
| 10.8 | 611 | 1, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13 |
Solutions to Recommended Problems are also available.
Here and here are two more lists of suggested problems, one from the 7th edition of the Boyce-DiPrima book, and one from the 7th and the 8th editions.
I am expecting to use the following grading rules: Each of the three exams will constitute 1/3 of your final grade.
The grade cutoffs will be no stricter than
| A | B | C | D | F |
| 90-100 | 80-90 | 70-80 | 60-70 | < 60 |
and may end up being looser, but I won't know where exactly they will be until the very end.
If you are unhappy with the grade that you got from the exams, you can give it up, and instead take the optional final exam during the finals week. The grade on the final exam will supersede all the previous grades, so do not take the final exam unless you are absolutely sure that you will do better than during the semester.
The Optional Final Exam will be given on Tuesday, May 10, 6:30-9:30 PM in DCC 308.
You are allowed one handwritten sheet (8.5 by 11 inches) of notes. No other materials (books, notes, calculators, etc.) are allowed.
In the framework of Rensselaer's Project Links, a number of interactive learing modules have been developed. For us, the most interesting ones will the ones on differential equations, especially those on mechanical oscillations. Other modules of interest for this course include Fourier series, drag forces on solid objects, heat conduction, and chemical kinetics.