MA2071 On-Line Materials -- Matrices and Linear Algebra I

Last modified: March 5, 2010

This page contains materials related to the course MA2071, Matrices and Linear Algebra, I.
(Jump now to Week 0, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7.)

Office Hours

C Term, 2010. Please come by at any time. Unless there is an unavoidable conflict, I will be in my office during regular office hours, which are 10-11am and 2-4pm on Tuesdays.

Teaching Assistant: Erin Kiley will be in her office for office hours 4-5pm on Wednesdays, and by appointment.

Support Structure

Success in this course depends largely on a student's personal effort. Regular attendance in lectures and conferences are obvious first steps to a smooth term.

Conference section details can be found here.

Tutors: The Tutor Center in Daniels Hall (1st floor) has hired tutors who help with all sorts of introductory courses. For individual help in linear algebra, locate the following tutors:

Akhil, Mondays 9-11, Tuesdays 9-12
Andrew, Mondays,Thursdays 1-3, Fridays 1-2
Veselin, Fridays 10-12

Their weekly schedule will be posted outside the door of the Academic Resources Center on the first floor of Daniels Hall.

The MATRIX: The PLAs will hold informal help sessions each Sunday 2-8pm in the Campus Center outside the bookstore. Please consider this as a place where you can work independently on practice problems with someone close by to help when you get stuck.

Text: Linear Algebra and its Applications Edition: Third Revised
by David C. Lay.

Notes on Material Below

On this page, you can find on-line versions of most material distributed in class.

All files are in Adobe's PDF format. You will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to access these documents.
In some cases, a link may not be active until the date given in parentheses.

Matrices and Linear Algebra I -- MA2071

Sections C01-C04

Jump now to Week 0, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7.

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 0 -- January 14 to January 15.

Week 0 Reading and Exercises (January 12, 2010);
Assignment 1, due Wednesday January 20 at 4:30pm (Jan. 14, 2010);
Quiz 1, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Jan. 15, 2010).

Course syllabus (January 14, 2010);
Lecture notes for Jan. 14 Class meeting (January 14, 2010).
January 16 e-mail message

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 1 -- January 19 to January 22.

Week 1 Reading and Exercises (January 19, 2010);
Assignment 2, due Tuesday January 26 at 4:30pm (corrected Jan. 21, 2010);
Quiz 2, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Jan. 22, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Quiz 1 (January 19, 2010);
Lecture notes from January 19 class (January 19, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Assignment 1 (January 21, 2010).

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 2 -- January 25 to January 29.

NOTE: Test 1 will be held 6-8pm on Wednesday, January 27;
Week 2 Reading and Exercises (January 25, 2010);
Assignment 3, due Tuesday February 2 at 4:30pm (Updated Jan. 29, 2010);
Quiz 3, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Jan. 29, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Quiz 2 (January 25, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Assignment 2 (January 26, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Test 1, type a (January 29, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Test 1, type b (January 29, 2010).

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 3 -- February 1 to February 5.

Week 3 Reading and Exercises (February 1, 2010);
Assignment 4, due Tuesday February 9 at 4:30pm (Feb. 3, 2010);
Quiz 4, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Feb. 5, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Quiz 3 (January 30, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Assignment 3 (February 2, 2010).

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 4 -- February 8 to February 12.

Week 4 Reading and Exercises (February 8, 2010);
Assignment 5, due Tuesday February 16 at 4:30pm (Feb. 10, 2010);
Quiz 5, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Feb. 12, 2010);
A MAPLE worksheet for plotting Alice the Arrow: save to Desktop as Alice.mw;
The other 2-D graphics shown in class: Flying.mw.
A simple example where a determinant is computed using row reduction (February 11, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Quiz 4 (February 8, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Assignment 4 (February 9, 2010).

Two Excursions for those who are interested:

Excursion: Iterated Function Systems
- There are plenty of texts and web pages on the connections between fractals and linear transformations.
- A MAPLE worksheet for plotting the Sierpinski gasket: save to Desktop as ifs_sierpinski.mw;
- A MAPLE worksheet for plotting Barnsley's fractal fern: save to Desktop as ifs_fern.mw.
- In-class version: ifs_fern_class.mw.

Excursion: Bézier curves
- some notes on Bézier curves, in PDF format;
- A MAPLE worksheet for plotting Bézier curves: save to Desktop as bezier1.mw;
- A simple java demo for Bézier curves by Mark Hoefer at UCLA, courtesy of Prof. Kirby Baker.

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 5 -- February 15 to February 19.

NOTE: Test 2 will be held 6-8pm on Wednesday, February 17.
Week 5 Reading and Exercises (February 15, 2010);
Assignment 6, due Wednesday February 24 at 4:30pm (February 18, 2010);
Quiz 6, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Feb. 19, 2010). (Feb. 18, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Quiz 5 (February 15, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Assignment 5 (February 16, 2010).

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 6 -- February 22 to February 26.

Week 6 Reading and Exercises (February 22, 2010);
Assignment 7, due Tuesday March 2 at 4:30pm (February 23, 2010);
Quiz 7, to be completed at home, in a timed environment (Feb. 26, 2010).

Sample Solutions to Assignment 6 (February 26, 2010);
A MAPLE worksheet for plotting Fourier projections: save to Desktop as fourierprojection.mw;
Sample Solutions to Quiz 6 (February 24, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Test 2, type a (February 26, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Test 2, type b (February 26, 2010);
Some examples of coordinate vectors (February 26, 2010);
Some examples of change-of-basis matrices (February 27, 2010).

MATRICES AND LINEAR ALGEBRA I, WEEK 7 -- March 1 to March 5.

Week 7 Reading and Exercises (March 1, 2010);
Some examples of eigenvalue computations (February 28, 2010);
Solutions to the above examples
A small example of a Markov chain for March 4 class
Another Markov chain for March 4 class (March 1, 2010);
Here's a link to Colm Mulcahy's card trick column at the Mathematical Association of America;
NOTE: Test 3 will be held in Perrault Hall 6-8pm on Wednesday, March 3.

Sample Solutions to Assignment 7 (March 2, 2010);
Sample Solutions to Quiz 7 (March 2, 2010);
If you are rusty with computing polynomials and finding roots, here is a tutorial to help you brush up.
Here are some review problems dealing with polynomial factorization (with anwswers).

William J. Martin / WPI / martin.deletethis@wpi.edu