Overview

Instructor

Jeffrey Wong ( main site)

Email

jtwong at math dot duke dot edu

Office

Physics 029B

Office Hours

M11-12, F4-5 or by appointment

Lectures

WF 3:05-4:20 (Physics 227)

Syllabus

Available here.

Textbook

Uri Ascher & Chen Greif, A First Couse in Numerical Methods and excerpts from Cleve Moler’s book Numerical Methods in MATLAB (free online).

Description

Development of numerical techniques for accurate, efficient solution of problems in science, engineering, and mathematics through the use of computers. Linear systems, nonlinear equations, optimization, numerical integration, differential equations, error analysis.

Prerequisites

solid understanding of fundamental concepts from linear algebra is essential, including linearity, solving linear systems, eigenvalues and eigenvectors. A course in multi-variable calculus (e.g. Math 212) is also required. Experience with ordinary differential equations is recommended, but not necessary.

Grading

Grades will be assigned based on an assessment of your performance on homework, midterm exams, and a final project. The components will be weighted (roughly) as follows:

• Weekly homework (20%), lowest dropped
• Two midterm exams (20% each)
• Final project (30%)
• There is no final exam for this course

Note that because this baseline score does not correspond directly to a letter grade; in a vacuum, it does not provide much more information than a sense of how compontents are weighted. The interpretation of all scores and course (letter) grade will depend on the final project and an assessment of your performance as a whole.

Homework

• Homework will be assigned (roughly) weekly and will typically be due the following Wednesday. Consult the schedule for due dates.
• No late homework will be accepted, barring exceptional circumstances as per Duke policy.
• Working and studying in groups is encouraged (you will get much more out of doing homework if you discuss it with others!). However, you should write your own solutions to each problem in your own words.
• Solutions should be complete arguments; the process by which you arrive at the solution is far more important than a correct answer. Assertions should be supported by computed data and code when it is needed.
• Homework pages must be stapled together with clearly readable work. Solutions should be in the same order as in the list of assigned problems.

Computational work

• Some homework problems will require writing and running code. The official choice of language for this course is Matlab; most examples/solutions will also include python code. You may write your code in Matlab or python (for python, use the numpy package).
• Collaboration is encouraged but the code you submit should be your own, which includes not copy-pasting code from other sources. Avoid looking up code online because it is difficult to un-see it when writing your own.
• Expectations for computational problems are detailed in the Guidelines for computational problems document (on Piazza).

Ethics

Students are expected to follow the Duke Community Standard. If a student is found responsible for academic dishonesty through the Office of Student Conduct, the student will receive a core of zero for that assignment. If a student’s admitted academic shonesty is resolved directly through a faculty-student resolution agreement approved by the Office of Student Conduct, the terms of that ent will dictate the grading response to the assignment at issue.