MATH 1553                  Fall 2016           Intro To Linear Algebra

 

Instructor: Sal Barone

Office: Skiles 013

Office Hours: M  1-2, W 1-2:30 and 3:30-4, TTh 12-3 (by appt) – 12 noon (or by appointment)

Contact: sbarone@math.gatech.edu,

 

Teaching Assistants (Friday): Note any student can go to ANY office hours not just for their own TA. TA office is Skiles 230 unless otherwise listed.

·       F1 Dhruv Sagar (dhruv.sagar at gatech.edu)               in Skiles 268 (12pm-1pm)                        Office Hours: 11-12 Tuesday

·       F2 Bold Dorjpurev (bold at gatech.edu)                     in Skiles 270 (12pm-1pm)                        Office Hours: 11-12 Friday

·       F3 Gerardo Mora (gmora at gatech.edu)                    in Skiles 368 (12pm-1pm)                        Office Hours: 10-11 Friday

·       F4 Juntao Duan (jt.duan at gatech.edu)                      in Skiles 255 (12pm-1pm)                        Office Hours: 4-5 Wednesday

·       F5 Yue Guan (scott.guan at gatech.edu)                    in Skiles 257 (12pm-1pm)                        Office Hours: 11-12 Monday

·       H1 Arjun Patel (apatel436 at gatech.edu)                 in Skiles 202 (11am-12pm)                       Office Hours: 1:30-2:30 Wednesday

·       H2 Yue Guan (scott.guan at gatech.edu)                   in Skiles 171 (11am-12pm)                       Office Hours: 12-1 Wednesday

·       H3 Gerardo Mora (gmora at gatech.edu)                  in Skiles 257 (11am-12pm)                       Office Hours: 1-2 Monday

·       H4 Zhuo Ma (martinma899 at gatech.edu)               in Skiles 268 (11am-12pm)                       Office Hours: 4-5 Wednesday

·       H5 Yash Chandramouli (ychandramouli3 at gatech.edu)  in Skiles 169 (11am-12pm)               Office Hours: 1-3 Thursday

 

Important Websites

Course Information/Grades: https://t-square.gatech.edu/ (required)

Piazza/Announcements:  https://piazza.com/class/is5g06bdsw27y  (highly recommended)

Textbook/Homework Access, MyMathLab: https://www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com/northamerica/mymathlab/ (required)

Instructor's Web Page: http://www.math.gatech.edu/~sbarone7

Georgia Tech Honor Code: http://www.honor.gatech.edu/

 

General Course Information

Course Title: Introduction to Linear Algebra

Texts: MyMathLab (online) is required and contains an electronic version of the textbook, Lay's Linear Algebra.  Access codes and registration information are available on our course T-square page and below.  You can access our MyMathLab course at the website listed above.  We will cover various topics in Lay from chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

Meeting Times:

Lectures: MW 11 am – 12 pm, and MW 12 pm – 1pm both in D.M. Smith 105

Recitation: F 11 am – 12 pm (see above for locations and TA info)

Announcements: Announcements will be made via T-Square, which will forward to your Tech e-mail address if so configured.  It is very important that you read these announcements, as they may contain vital information.

The learning objectives for 1553 are as follows:

·     Students will learn the fundamentals of linear algebra, including topics/techniques such as: writing systems of equations in matrix form; transforming matrices into echelon form; vectors and vector spaces; matrix equations and their solutions; matrix operations such as inverting, factoring, finding determinants, finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and diagonalization; and orthogonal projections and least-squares.

·     Students will show knowledge of the above linear algebra concepts/techniques both graphically and algebraically.

 

Course Organization

This course will generally consist of two 50 minute lectures and one 50 minute recitation section per week, at the times listed above.  During lectures, we will go over the course material as found in the textbook, work examples, and answer your (hopefully) many questions.  During recitation, you will spend time working on problems in groups, going over problems with the TA, taking quizzes, and further discussing course material.  You will also take exams in recitation section.  Attendance is required at all scheduled class times.

 

IMPORTANT: At the end of this syllabus is a breakdown of how topics will be covered in lectures throughout the semester (which is subject to change with notice from me).  It is imperative that you read the sections of the book to be covered before the lecture in question, including working through the examples in the text and making sure you understand them.  Various studies have shown that this has an enormously beneficial impact on course performance.  Do not skip this important step in mastering the material in this course.

 

Course Requirements and Grading

HOMEWORK: Homework will be assigned on-line each Monday and will consist of exercise problems on MyMathLab (see details below).  You are expected to understand all homework problems for the exams.  In order to increase the effectiveness of recitation, you should attempt the problems before the weekly recitation sections.  Homeworks will generally be due every SUNDAY at 11:59 pm (see the tentative course schedule).  The lowest two homework grades will be dropped.  For this reason, no late homework will ever be accepted, for any reason.  Each homework is worth the same portion of your grade, and in total homework will be worth 10% of your final grade.

 

WEEKLY QUIZZES (Friday): We will have quizzes every Friday in recitation. The quizzes are meant to be easy and to give you some incentive for staying up to date with the weekly assignments and keeping on track with your study habits. If you consistently get less than 80% on quizzes you should let me know and we can talk about effective study habits.

 

HANDWRITTEN HOMEWORK (Friday): Each week you will submit handwritten homework with the weekly quiz. The goal of the handwritten homework is to help you explore some of the concepts from the course not conducive to MyLab. See the course website every week for the problems as I will update the link titled *Handwritten Homework* periodically.

 

RECITATION ATTENDANCE:  Attendance is mandatory for recitation, and it will be taken each session.  You MUST attend your assigned recitation – do not attend another recitation instead of your own or your attendance will not be counted!  Each attendance is worth the same portion of your grade, and in total there will be 15% worth of your final grade taken in recitation through quizzes and handwritten homework.

 

EXAMS: There will be three exams during the semester.  Exams will take place during recitation, and are tentatively scheduled for  9/23,  10/21, and 11/11 (see the tentative course schedule).  No books, notes, calculators, cell phones, or other electronic devices are allowed during exams.  Each exam will be worth 15% of your final grade.  If you happen to miss an exam during the semester for a legitimate, documented reason, then I will simply ignore that exam and add its weight to the final exam (making the final exam worth 45% of your grade for 1 missed exam) when calculating your final grade.

 

FINAL EXAM: The final exam will cover all course materials and will be administered on December 9, 11:30 am – 2:20 pm for 12pm lecture and December 14, 8 am – 10:50 am for 11am lecture. All students must take the final exam to complete the course.  It is worth 30% of your overall grade.

 

EXTRA CREDIT: There is no extra credit.

 

The grading breakdown, then, is as follows:

Homework, lowest two Mylab hw dropped. 10%

Recitation: handwritten homework/quizzes.. 15%

Exam 1 ................................................  15%

Exam 2................................................. 15%

Exam 3................................................. 15%

Final Exam........................................... 30%

 

Final letter grades will be calculated based on the 10 point scale below. Cut-offs may be lowered but will not be raised above the following.

 

A: [90%-100%], B: [80%-90%), C: [70%-80%), D: [60%-70%), F: [0%-60%)

 

On a related note, progress report grades will be assigned on September 30.  A satisfactory grade will be assigned to all students with a current grade of C or higher (based on the above weighting of grades and whatever the curve happens to be at the time).

MyMathLab Course Information: We will be utilizing MyMathLab (MML) for homework through a joint code for the Thomas Calculus text and the Lay Linear Algebra text.  In order to register, you will need our course id listed below.

MyMathLab Course ID: barone84057

 

Important notes on MML:

If you already have an account on MyMathLab using this combined textbook within the past 18 months, then you do not need to purchase a new code.  Login to your account on MyMathLab, select the option to add a new course, and enter our course ID.

If you already have a MyMathLab account that used either the Thomas or the Lay texbook in the past 18 months, but you were unable to add our course using the previous step, please send an email to gatechmath@yahoo.com and include the following information:

Your First and Last Name

The email address used to register for MML

Your Login ID for MML

Our course ID (listed above)

You should receive a reply within 36 business hours from the Pearson support team regarding your account status.  In the meantime, you can access our course using the *temporary access* option when registering.  Please do not pay for a new code until you receive a reply from Pearson.

·    If you do not have a MyMathLab account using the Thomas or Lay textbooks, or if your account is over 18 months old, you will need to purchase a new code for our course.  Please refer to the registration document, located on the course website, to create your new account.

When signing up for MyMathLab, it will be immensely helpful to me (for grading purposes) if you will set your STUDENT ID to your USERID for the GT system (i.e., your T-square USERID, as in *gburdell3*, etc).

MyMathLab comes with an entire electronic version of the textbook; it is your choice if you would also like to own the textbook in print. You may purchase a MyMathLab code either from the bookstore or on-line while registering at http://www.mymathlab.com. If you prefer to own a hardcopy of the text, the bookstore offers packages of MyMathLab combined with a loose-leaf or hardcover version of the Thomas textbook that is less expensive than purchasing the text and code separately.  

PLEASE NOTE: GEORGIA TECH HAS A SPECIAL CODE PACKAGE THAT INCLUDES BOTH TEXTBOOKS.  THIS CODE CAN ONLY BE PURCHASED THROUGH THE CAMPUS BOOKSTORES OR DIRECTLY FROM PEARSON.  CODES PURCHASED BY OTHER VENDORS WILL NOT WORK!  Possible ISBNs for this text are: 1323131760, 1323132112, 132313204X, 1323132104, or 1323132120.