Semester: Spring 2008
Instructor: Thomas Kiffe
Email: 609d at math.tamu.edu or tkiffe at math.tamu.edu
Textbook: Burden & Faires, Numerical Analysis, Eighth Edition, Brooks/Cole, ISBN 0-534-39200-8
Course Requirements: The student should have a good, working knowledge of calculus. A basic understanding of linear algebra will be helpful in Chapter 6 and some knowledge of differential equations will be useful in Chapter 5.
Course Objectives: This course covers some of the basic topics in numerical analysis. These topics include
For each of these topics we will develop several algorithms for solving such problems as well as the mathematical ideas behind the algorithms. To be successful in this course the student must master both the ideas and the algorithms.
Programming: The student will have to implement these algorithms by writing five or six computer programs. These programs will require only a basic knowledge of programming - control loops, if-else control flow, etc. Any modern programming language may be used, including
To use any of the first three you need a development system with a compiler, linker, etc. and be able to execute your programs and write output to a file. If you use one of the last three you will be using the application as a programming environment in which to write programs which execute in that application. Any programming environment not included in the list above must be approved by me.
Grading: Your grade in this course will be determined by your scores on the following items:
The total number of points a student may earn is 500. A student receives an A if he or she earns 450 or more points, a B if he or she earns between 400 and 449 points, etc.
Course Policies: Quizzes, exams, and programming assignments will be posted to this Web site in PDF format. Your responses will be sent to me via email. Written answers must be scanned and sent to me in jpeg format. Typed answers, as well as programming assignments must be sent to me in PDF format or as plain text files. I will not accept word processing documents as I have no word processors for reading such documents. Don't send me compressed zip files as they are stripped automatically from email messages by the Math Department's mail server.
Getting Help. If you have any questions during the semester you should send those questions to me via email. I will post answers to questions about material relevant to a specific chapter in the section of this Web site devoted to that chapter. If the question is not of general interest I will respond directly to the person sending the question.
Using this Web Site. The Web site is divided into several sections.