AMATH 383
SLN 1206, MWF 12:30-1:20, Mechanical Engineering Building 251
Tentative Syllabus
In general, I will be focusing on topics from the textbook; although not necessarily in order. Some material may be drawn from other sources. The main topics will be chosen from the following list:- Introduction to modeling
- Fibonacci Numbers, Golden Ratio and Laws of Nature
- Discrete and Continuous Modeling in Finance (Interest, Mortgage)
- Exponential Growth and Decay (Carbon Dating, Disease)
- Population Models
- Species Interactions (Predator-Prey)
- Conflict Models, Marriage and Divorce
- Chaos
- Modeling in Physics (Kepler, Newton, Kelvin)
- Bridges
- Applications in Climate Dynamics
Course Requirements
Your grade will be based on homework and a final project. One of the homework assignments may be turned into a take-home midterm exam (i.e. no collaboration). It is expected that you will learn the material covered in lecture and assigned as homework, read the book as necessary, and ask questions during lecture or office hours.- Homework: Assignments will generally be given on Fridays in lecture
and posted on the webpage the same day. They will be due the following Friday
at the beginning of class. Completed homework can also be turned in anytime
before lecture into my mailbox in the Applied Math Department.
Late homework will not be accepted -- except in cases of
emergency. The lowest homework grade will be dropped to allow for illness,
etc. Please make sure that your homework is neat and legible, the problems
are clearly numbered and the your final answer is easily identifiable. If I
cannot read your solution, you will not get credit, even if it is correct.
Also, you have to show your work to receive full credit. You are encouraged
to work together on assignments -- except for the take-home midterm -- but you
should not just copy your buddy's work. (If there is a take-home midterm, it
will count toward your grade the equivalent of two regular homework
assignments.)
- Project: The project will consist of a presentation and a write-up. More details will be given later in the quarter, but in essence it will require that you carry out a modeling problem of your choice, from beginning to end. You are encouraged to work in groups of up to three people. In order to give you time, both to get to know your classmates before choosing a group and to work on the project proposal afterward, groups will be formed at the end of October. Feel free to start talking before then. If you work in a group, every person has to contribute to the presentation and submit her or his own write-up. Each individual will be graded separately to the extent possible. A detailed set of guidelines for the project can be found here ( .ps , .pdf ).
- Class Participation: Class attendance is not required but strongly recommended. Class participation enters your grade in the homework portion. In other words, if you never show up to class, but have perfect homeworks, your grade will not suffer. If your homework grades put you on the edge between two grades, class participation will determine whether I round up or down. Also, if you do not come to class, do not expect to get help in office hours (unless there was a good reason for your absence). You are required to attend class for the project presentations! If you miss your own presentation, you will receive a 0 for the presentation portion of your project grade. If you miss others' presentations, I will deduct up to 10% from your presentation grade.
- Project: The project will consist of a presentation and a write-up. More details will be given later in the quarter, but in essence it will require that you carry out a modeling problem of your choice, from beginning to end. You are encouraged to work in groups of up to three people. In order to give you time, both to get to know your classmates before choosing a group and to work on the project proposal afterward, groups will be formed at the end of October. Feel free to start talking before then. If you work in a group, every person has to contribute to the presentation and submit her or his own write-up. Each individual will be graded separately to the extent possible. A detailed set of guidelines for the project can be found here ( .ps , .pdf ).
Schedule and Homework
Follow links in the table below to obtain a copy of the homework in
PostScript (.ps) or 
Adobe
Acrobat (.pdf) format. You may also obtain here solutions to some of the
homework and exam problems. An item shown below in plain text is not yet
available. For additional information regarding viewing and printing the
homework and solution sets,
click here.
| Assigned Date | Due Date | Homework Sets | Homework Solutions | |
| First day of classes | Wed., Jan. 4 | |||
| Homework #1 | Fri., Jan. 6 | Fri., Jan. 13 | HW #1 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Martin Luther King Day | Mon., Jan. 16 | No class | ||
| Homework #2 | Fri., Jan. 20 | Fri., Jan. 27 | HW #2 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Homework #3 | Fri., Jan. 27 | Fri., Feb. 3 | HW #3 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Homework #4 | Fri., Feb. 3 | Fri., Feb. 10 | HW #4 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Project Proposal | Mon., Feb. 13 | Project Guidelines | ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Homework #5 | Fri., Feb. 10 | Fri., Feb. 17 | HW #5 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| President's Day | Mon., Feb. 20 | No class | ||
| Homework #6 | Fri., Feb. 24 | Fri., Mar. 3 | HW #6 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| W Credit Project Draft | Mon., Mar. 6 | |||
| Homework #7 | Fri., Mar. 3 | Fri., Mar. 10 | HW #7 ( .ps , .pdf ) | |
| Last day of classes | Fri., Mar. 10 | |||
| Project Write-up | Mon., Mar. 13 | |||
| Final Exam: Presentations | Thu., Mar. 16 | MEB 251 | 8:30am-10:20am |
Grading
There will be 7 homework assignments due in-class. Check the above schedule for due dates. Homeworks constitute 70% of the final grade; the lowest homework score will be dropped. The final project will constitute 30% of the final grade. If you would like to receive W (writing) credit, please so indicate on your term paper and turn in a draft by Monday, March 6. University regulation requires the W credit paper be at least 10 pages (not including figures and tables). It will be read and returned to you for corrections.You may view your homework and exam grades on-line.
Reference Material
Link to the reference guide for the American Meterological Society: AMS Guidelines for Preparing References.This is an example of how to create a bibliographic reference list for a paper. Note that each journal/publisher has its own format for such listings.
Websites:
These are created and maintained by Prof. John Polking at Rice University.
In particular, take a look at Part V. Chaos and Bifurcation
Handouts:
| 1. | Matlab Routines for Logistic Equation (click here) |
| <cdcamp@amath.washington.edu> | Wed Jan 4 11:45:40 PDT 2006 |