2010F MAT240 Linear Algebra
From TorontoMathWiki
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Linear Algebra
Course Information
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Official description: MAT240H1
Instructor: Marco Gualtieri
Teaching Assistants: Brad Hannigan-Daley and Patrick Walls.
Class schedule: Tuesday 1-3pm in MP103 and Thursday 1-2pm in MP202, starting September 14, 2010.
Tutorial schedule: Thursdays 2:15-4pm, starting on Sept. 23, at UC52 (if the last digit of your student number is even) and UC144 (if the last digit is odd),
TA Office hours: In BA6283, Monday 11am-1pm and Thursday 11am-1pm, starting Sept. 27
Instructor office hours: Tuesdays 3-4pm after the class, at BA6260.
Course Outline
The course outline is available here. It will change as we proceed with the course.
Textbooks
The main textbook is available to you for free online as a UofT student. The topics we cover in class will also be easily found in any of the following books, as well as elsewhere online, e.g. Wikipedia.
Main textbook: The main book is available for free from the University of Toronto Library as an e-book:
Other useful textbooks:
- Linear Algebra Done Wrong, Treil.
- Linear Algebra, Hoffman and Kunze.
- Linear Algebra, Friedberg, Insel, Spence.
- Linear Algebra -- wiki textbook
- Linear Algebra, Hefferon.
- Linear Algebra via Exterior Products, Winitzki.
- Linear Algebra and Its Applications, Strang.
Forum
The forum for this course is located here.
Join the forum, using your first and last name. Ask as many questions as you like, and try answering some too -- we often learn a lot by trying to explain things to others. The TAs and I will check the forum and answer some of the questions, and your classmates will hopefully do the same. The forum is purely to facilitate discussion among the students and has no impact on grades at all.
Procedure if you have a question: Ask in Class » Ask in Tutorials or on the Forum » TA office hours » Instructor office hours.
Evaluation
Marking scheme
There will be one term test (20% of the total grade), a final exam (50%), and about 10 homework assignments (30%).
The Final Exam
The Final exam took place on Friday, December 10th from 2-5 PM in PB B250 (Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building, 144 College Street). 65 students took the exam, with two absentees. The average grade was 61, with a standard deviation of 25.
The Term Test
The term test took place in Building EX Room 200 on Tuesday October 19th, during the usual class time 1-3pm. 77 Students took the exam, the average grade was 62, and the standard deviation was 20 (well within the usual grade distributions for this course). Here is a histogram of the results.
How to read your grade:
- If you got something like 80-100, fantastic, keep working hard and make sure you understand where you went wrong.
- If you got something like 60-80 you're doing well but you probably missed something significant. Figure out what it was and make a plan to fix the problem for next time.
- If you got something like 40-60 you should be concerned. You are still in position to improve greatly and get a good grade at the end, but what you missed is quite significant and you are at the risk of finding yourself far behind. Figure out a way to spend more time reading and working on the course.
- If you got less than 40, most likely you are not gaining much from this class and you should consider dropping it, unless you are convinced that you understand the cause of your difficulty (you were sick, you couldn't study because of some unusual circumstances, something like that) and you feel confident you have a fix for next time.
A student who misses the term test without providing a valid reason (for example, a doctor’s note) within one week of the test will receive a mark of 0 on the term test. There will be no make-up term test. If a student misses the term test for a valid reason, the weight of the problem sets will increase to 35% and the weight of the final exam to 65%.
Homework
Assignments are posted on this page (upper right hand corner navigation panel), and will be due in the tutorials. Assignments are marked by the TAs. All students (including those who join the course late) will receive a mark of 0 on each assignment not handed in by the deadline; though in computing the homework grade, your worst two assignments will not count. I encourage you to discuss the assignments with other students, so long as you write up your own solutions. Again, no late assignments will be accepted -- please hand in what you have.
No B.S. Bonus
If you write absolutely nothing false on an assignment (including "trivial" numerical errors) you will be awarded a 10% bonus. This is intended to disincentivize the writing of utter nonsense.
How to do well in this class
This class is about training your mind to think in a more modern mathematical way, and in this sense it is like learning a language: you need to spend focused time with the material and you need to practice. In addition to the 3 hours of lectures, you should be spending at least 4-5 hours a week thinking about the material, reading the suggested texts, and meditating upon the nature of n-dimensional space.
Accessibility Needs
The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible: disability.services@utoronto.ca or http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/accessibility.
Previous course webpages:
General help for students: Department site and wiki.
