Applied Math 5600

Fall 2005

MWF 10:00-10:50am, EC CR 151

Instructor: Keith Julien

              Office: EC OT 235            Hours: WF 11:00-12:30 

                Phone: (303) 492-5753      Email: julien@colorado.edu

Course Description:

This course will present the mathematical underpinnings of modern numerical methods and parcticle implementations of those methods.

Motivation:

Computation has become one of the three legs of science and engineering: Theory, Experiment and Computation. No discipline has escaped the influence of computation and many disciplines have been reinvented because of new computational capabilities. Today's fastest computers can perform over 35 trillion multiplications per second. Good mathematical algorithms are essential to effectively harness this power. This class is the first step in understanding the mathematics of computation.

Required Text:

Kendall Atkinson,  An Introduction to Numerical Analysis, 2nd ed., Wiley, 1988.

Supplimental Text:


Golub and Van Loan, Matrix Computations, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1899

Tests:

There will be two in-class tests and a final exam.

Programming Assignments:

There will be 4 programming assignments. The programming language will be Matlab.

Grading

Approximatley 50% of the final grades will be determined by the tests,  30% by the programming assignments and 20% by the homework. The homework will be spot graded.

Class participation is encouraged and will be considered in assigning letter grades for borderline cases.

Programming

All programming will be done in MATLAB. Experience in a programming language is a prerequisite of this course. Basic experience with MATLAB is helpful, ut not essential. The MATLAB language is more natural and higher-level than C or Fortran, which makes it easier to write an algorithm directly from its mathematical description. The course textbook uses a "pseudocode" to describe of most of the algorithms we cover. It is easy to translate this into MATLAB.

Some helpful materials:

Matlab Quick Reference

Matlab Survival Guide

Debugging in Matlab