INTRODUCTION TO LINEAR ALGEBRA
MAT 1341A Fall 2016

Barry Jessup, Instructor. Room:KED 305F, ph. 562-5800 X3536

Course page: https://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/bjessup/courses/MAT1341A/

Prerequisite: Calculus and Vectors (MCV4U), MAT1339, or an equivalent. You must have one of these to be enrolled.

Lectures: Tuesdays 1:00-2:30, Thursdays 11:30-1:00, in STE H0104. The acronym "STE" refers to the SITE building.

Office hours: To be determined. Please email me (Barry dot Jessup at uottawa dot ca) a copy of your course schedule by Sunday noon, 11-September, if you wish your availability to be taken into account.

Text: "Vector Spaces First", by Thierry Giordano, Barry Jessup and Monica Nevins. (This E-book, with exercises and partial solutions, is available online through Blackboard.)

Approximate course content: Chapters 1-19 and 21-23. Please note that the material in chapters 2 and 3 is merely review.

Optional Text. Consult the link for the optional text.

This course is not structured into modules: each test can examine any of the material covered from the beginning of the course, up to that date. Thus, as the course progresses, tests will look more and more like the final exam, which will cover all the material in the course. No calculators will be permitted (or needed) on any test.

Evaluation: There will be four tests and a final exam. Note that each test (except for the first, which will include some prerequisite material from high school) will examine all the material covered from the beginning of the course up to that date, unless otherwise specified. Solutions to tests and assignments will be posted on the web.

Test schedule:
Date Time and Room
Test 1 Monday 26-September Your DGD time and room
Test 2 Monday 17-October Your DGD time and room
Test 3Monday 7-November Your DGD time and room
Test 4Monday 28-November Your DGD time and room

Please note that the results of Test 3 will probably not be available before the official drop date (18-November).

Problem Sessions/DGD: Discussion groups (DGDs) will be held every Monday except during Thanksgiving and Study Week, or if there's a test. There is also a DGD on Wednesday 7-December, since that day will follow a Monday timetable.

Drop-In Centre: Excellent help is also available in the Help Centre. Consult the link for more details.

Suggested Exercises: See below to get started. A key to success is to be able to do all of these.

Evaluation Scheme: If your score on the final exam is less than 45%, your final grade is your score on the final exam. Otherwise: Your final grade for the course shall be the weighted average of your scores on the tests (50% = 4 x 12.5%) and the final (50%). However, if your final exam mark is better than any test mark, the weight of that test will be shifted to the final.

The weight of any test that you miss will be added to that of the final in the calculation of the course mark.

Determine the date, place and time of the final exam yourself - do not rely on your friends for this. An error on their part can cause much unnecessary grief. Moreover, don't write any exam, especially the final, if you are unwell. This cannot be taken into account after the fact. Please consult the relevant academic regulations (9.5.1(e)). You should also consult University regulations on academic fraud.

Your first Test (Diagnostic)

This test will consist of 12 multiple choice questions on material taken from high school vector geometry, plus some material presented in the first 2 classes. In particular, you will need to know how to:

  1. Find the equations of a line in 3-space, given sufficient data
  2. Find a Cartesian equation of a plane in 3-space, given sufficient data
  3. Find a vector-parametric form for a plane in 3-space, given sufficient data
  4. Determine the intersection of 2 planes in 3-space
  5. Determine the intersection of 2 lines in 3-space
  6. Determine the intersection of a line and a plane in 3-space
  7. Use the cross product to compute
    (i) a normal to a plane, (ii) the area of a triangle in 2 or 3-space,
  8. Use the dot product to compute
    (i) the angle between 2 vectors in 2 or 3-space, (ii) the length of a vector in 2 or 3-space,
    (iii) the projection of one vector on another, (iv) the distance from a point to a plane in 3-space, (v) the distance from a point to a line in 2 or 3-space,
  9. Use the dot and cross products to compute the volume of a parallelepiped,
  10. Be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide complex numbers, and represent complex numbers in both Cartesian and polar form. (This last topic will be covered in class.) 

 
 

   Suggested Exercises for "Vector Spaces First":  These appear at the end of each chapter of the text, which is available on-line through Blackboard in the course MAT1341A.  

For the diagnostic test, try questions from the first chapters. (Solutions are generally available for the even parts of questions  -b,d,f, etc..) Then test yourself by trying previous diagnostic tests. 


   Suggested Exercises from the optional text  These are presented in the order in which we cover the material.


 

  SOME ADVICE FROM FORMER STUDENTS: 

In the past, at the time of course evaluations, I have asked students to offer any advice they might have for new students who are just beginning the course. Here are some of their recent comments:





"this course is not like high school ..., so get with it from the start or you'll have great difficulty later..."

"the more you work in September, the less you have to worry in December..."

"ask questions and consult with your classmates..."

"do the assigned questions..."

"do all the problems..."

"do more than the assigned questions: often, test questions come straight out of the book..."

"homework if your friend..."

"ask questions..."

"don't try to cram..."

"get your questions answered! ..."

"go to the problem sessions! ..."

"don't fall behind..."

"allow lots, I mean lots of time for studying..."

"attending problem sessions is practically mandatory..."

"wear baseball caps low over the forehead. It helps to hide you when you fall asleep..."

"no matter how bored you are, attend all the classes..."

"missing one lecture makes the next seem like it's in a foreign language..."

"go to class and the DGD's and listen to what Barry says. He gives you the tests on a silver platter if you do this..."

"if you want to pass, pay keen attention to what Barry says..."

"keep at it ! Each concept builds on the previous ones..."

"read each chapter the night before a lecture..."		

"read ahead, it's much worse catching up later on if you fall behind..."

"read one section and then do the exercises before going onto the next one..."

"the course moves along quickly. Taking 20 minutes the night before a class to read over the

  material makes the course substantially easier..."

"take 5 minutes after class to read the notes. They're more helpful than you think..."

"read over the class notes, since they are very different from the textbook and homework..."

"review your notes before coming to class and make sure you understand the last lecture..."

"studying from the book is easier..."

"study the tests from years before"

"consulting the textbook to re-learn what was already taught in class was mandatory..."

"the tests from previous years are a gold mine..."


"summarize the theorems in your own words..."

"hand in all your tests..."


"always wear a comfy sweater and jacket to class; they make good pillows and blankets..."

"make sure you can see the clock. The course moves more quickly that way ..."

"make sure you know what a "span" is..."

"don't study this course while watching a hockey game..."

"don't leave your questions until the last week..."

"stay calm during exams..."

"don't wait until the last moment to start studying or to start the suggested exercises..."

 "have a high dimensional being explain R5 in a way we could understand and visualise"

"don't worry, it gets easier!..."

"relax and keep trying - this stuff actually makes sense after a while..."


and my favourite:



"algebra is like skydiving. If you put off pulling the cord until the end ..."