We [he and Halmos] share a philosophy about linear algebra: we think basis-free, we write basis-free , but when the chips are down we close the office door and compute with matrices like fury. --- Irving Kaplansky on Paul Halmos: Celebrating 50 Years of Mathematics.

Required Text:  Numerical Linear Algebra, by L. N. Trefethen and David Bau, published by SIAM ( Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). The text is available at discount prices to SIAM members. If you are not a member of SIAM, then become one. There is no charge for students, as WMU is an institutional member of SIAM.

Software: Matlab, The MathWorks. Available on the PCs in the College of Arts and Sciences Computer Lab, 3rd Floor, Rood Hall. For lab hours see http://www.wmich.edu/math/labs/index.html. On your home computer you may use the freely available Matlab clone, GNU Octave. See http://www.octave.org/ for more details. Binaries for Linux and Windows are available.

Class Policies

Topics to Brush Up, etc

Matlab Workshop I

Matlab Workshop II

Homework: Mix of pencil and paper problems and projects in Matlab.

• HW 1, due Jan 12
• HW 2, due Jan 17.
• HW 3 due Jan 24.
• HW 4 due Feb 2.
• HW 5 due Feb 14.
• HW 6 due Mar 16.
• HW 7 due Mar 23.
• HW 8 due April 4.

What To Do on Rainy Nights

• p. 37: 5.3, 5.4
• p. 47: 6.1, 6.2, 6.4a, 6.5
• p. 55: 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
• p. 68: 9.2
• p. 76: 10.2, 10.4a

Exams: Midterm (Feb 23) and a cumulative Final (Apr 24).