Math 311 (6375): Ordinary Differential Equations

Fall 2014

Instructor: Prof. Antun Milas

Office: Earth Sciences 123A

Contact phone: 442-4608

Email : [email protected]

Web: http://www.math.albany.edu/~am815139/311sylfall2014.html

Office hours: TTH 12:00-1:00 PM, or by appointment.

Primary Text: An Introduction to ODEs, by Earl A. Coddington, Dover Publications.

Material covered: We will cover the following sections of the text:


Chapter 0: Preliminaries
Chapter 1: Introduction-Linear Equations of the First Order
Chapter 2: Linear Equations with Constant Coefficients
Chapter 3: Linear Equations with Variable Coefficients
Chapter 4: Linear Equations with Regular Singular Points
Chapter 5: Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions to First Order Equations
Systems of differential equations

Attendance: You are expected to attend class on time everyday . I reserve the right to lower your course grade for absences.

Examinations: There will be two one-hour exams:

Exam 1, October 2 (subject to change!)
Exam 2, November 13 (subject to change!) Prior to each exam there will be a review session.
There will be a cumulative final exam during the final examination period (place and time will be announced in class.)
All students are expected to take the examinations at the announced time. There is no reason to miss an exam other than getting sick (bring note from doctor), being on a team that has a game at the same time an exam is given (bring a note from your coach), or a death or serious illness in your family. In the event you can not attend an exam, you need to notify me IN ADVANCE . You can call me, e-mail me (preferred!) or leave a message with the secretaries.

Use of electronic devices: The use of cell phones is prohibited in class. Ringtones must be turned off in class and, if on, cell phones must be in vibrate mode. If there is a need to check for and/or receive a call, the student must inform me in advance to excuse him/herself to take an important call. Students must not engage in text messaging in the classroom. Students who create disturbance with ringing cell phones or text messaging, will be asked to leave the class session. Also, I do not allow laptops, tablet devices (iPads, etc.), music players, or any other electronic devices I deem potentially distracting in class.

Homework: Daily homework problems will be assigned on each section of material covered in class. Homework WILL BE collected AND graded! Homeworks are always due at the beginning of the lecture!

Quizzes: We will have weakly quizzes at the beginning of the class (mostly on Mondays). Questions on quizzes will be similar to problems found in the homework sets. You will be able to drop the lowest quiz (missed quiz counts as zero).

Grade breakdown: Final exam and two midterms: 25+20+20 % each (total 65%), Quizzes/homeworks 30%, Attendance and in-class participation 5%.