Honors Mathematics B

Mathematics V1208y
Prof. Michael Thaddeus
Spring 2010

Final grades have been submitted. Almost exactly the same remarks as last semester apply. In particular, the class as a whole again performed very well.
However, the final exam again proved to be very challenging, as intended. Grades should NOT be interpreted using the high-school framework of 90% = A, etc. In fact, the median grade was 57/106, very close to expectations.
About your letter grade: It is a monotone increasing function of the weighted average of your numerical grades from the course: 40% assignments, 22% midterm and 38% final, as stated in the syllabus. However, this increasing function is subjectively chosen by me and will remain secret...
A pleasant summer to all, and see you in September!

Syllabus
How Gaussian elimination works
The Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization process
Passover lecture notes from March 31 and April 5 (courtesy of Eric Mannes)

Practice midterm (and answers)
Midterm examination and answers
Practice final and answers
Final examination and answers

Assignment #1, due Friday, January 29.
Assignment #2, due Friday, February 5.
Assignment #3, due Friday, February 12.
Assignment #4, due Friday, February 19.
Assignment #5, due Friday, February 26.
Assignment #6, due Friday, March 5.
Assignment #7, due Friday, March 12.
Assignment #8, due Friday, March 26.
Assignment #9, due Friday, April 2.
Assignment #10, due Friday, April 9.
Assignment #11, due Friday, April 16.
Assignment #12, due Friday, April 23.
Assignment #13, due Friday, April 30.
Assignment #14, due never.

All are encouraged to take advantage of the Columbia Mathematics Help Room in 406 Mathematics. A schedule is available here.
Check out the Online Row Reducer, a Java applet that does Gauss-Jordan elimination with rational numbers for matrices of size up to 6 x 6. Written by Greg Landweber.
And here is a Java applet for 3 x 3 matrix multiplication: the Java Script Linear Algebra Calculator by Marcus Kazmierczak. This one uses floating-point decimals, not so good with fractions.
A classic of geeky humor, the Declaration of Linear Independence by David Grabiner.

Honors Mathematics A, Fall 2009