MATH 365 - Ordinary Differential Equations Syllabus

Ordinary Differential Equations

Spring Semester 1997
MATH 365.01 (3 credits), M W F, 11:00AM-11:50AM, Wickersham 109

Textbook:

Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 6th edition, William E. Boyce and Richard C. DiPrima, John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Prerequisites:

MATH 261 (Calculus III) is a prerequisite for this course.

Instructor:

Dr. Buchanan
Office: Wickersham 113, Phone: 872-3659, FAX: 871-2320
Office Hours: 8AM-9AM (MTu_ThF), 10AM-11AM (W), or by appointment
Email: Robert.Buchanan@millersville.edu

Attendance:

Students are expected to attend all class meetings. If you must be absent from class you are expected to complete class requirements (tests and/or homework assignments) prior to the absence. Students who miss a test should provide a valid excuse, otherwise you will not be allowed to make up the test. Tests should be made up within one week of their scheduled date. No final exam exemptions.

Homework:

Students are expected to do their homework and participate in class. Specially marked homework problems will be collected frequently and graded.

Tests:

Three 50-minute tests and a comprehensive exam (Thursday, May 15, 8:00AM-10:00AM). The tests have not been scheduled yet. They will be announced at least one week in advance. The tests are likely to be scheduled so as to be given after the completion of Sec. 3.5, Sec. 6.2, and Sec. 5.7. See the course content outline later for more detailed information.

If you feel that an error was made in the grading of a test, you should explain the error on a separate sheet of paper and return both it and the test to me within three class periods after the test is returned to you.

Grades:

Course grade will be calculated as follows.

Tests	50%
Exam	30%
Homework	20%

The course letter grades will be calculated as follows.

90-100	A
80-89	B
70-79	C
60-69	D
0-59	F

Final Word:

Math is not a spectator sport. What you learn from this course and your final grade depend mainly on the amount of work you put forth. Daily contact with the material through homework assignments and review of notes taken during lectures is extremely important.

Course Contents

First order ordinary differential equations and their applications (Chap. 2)
- Separable equations (Sec. 2.3)
- First order linear equations (Sec. 2.1)
- Exact differential equations and integrating factors (Sec. 2.8)
- Existence and uniqueness theory (Sec. 2.11)
- Applications of first order ordinary differential equations (Sec. 2.5-2.7, 2.10)
Linear differential equations of second order (Chap. 3)
- Homogeneous equations with constant coefficients (Sec. 3.1)
- The Wronskian and linear independence (Sec. 3.3)
- Complex roots of the characteristic equation (Sec. 3.4)
- Repeated roots (Sec. 3.5)
- Test #1 (tentative)
- Method of undetermined coefficients (Sec. 3.6)
- Variation of parameters (Sec. 3.7)
- Mechanical vibrations (Sec. 3.8)
- Forced vibrations (Sec. 3.9)
- Euler equations (Sec. 5.5)
Laplace transforms (Chap. 6)
- Definition of the Laplace transform (Sec. 6.1)
- Solution of initial value problems (Sec. 6.2)
- Test #2 (tentative)
- Step functions (Sec. 6.3)
- Differential equations with discontinuous forcing (Sec. 6.4)
- Impulse functions (Sec. 6.5)
- The convolution integral (Sec. 6.6)
Series solutions and special functions of mathematical physics (Chap. 5)
- Series solutions near an ordinary point (Sec. 5.2, 5.3)
- Series solutions near a regular singular point (Sec. 5.6, 5.7)
- Test #3 (tentative)
- Bessel's equation (Sec. 5.8)

Page maintained by: Robert.Buchanan
Robert.Buchanan@millersville.edu

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