Syllabus
Math 2984 - Fall 2017
Intro to Mathematical Problem Solving
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Class 1:
Tuesday, August 29:
Van Loan 1.1,
Introduction to the class;
computing versus mathematics;
computing a square root the hard way;
Van Loan slides;
Van Loan 1.1 example: surface area;
math formulas versus computer assignment statements;
Matlab glossary;
Assignment 0: get MATLAB installed on your computer!
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, August 30:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 2:
Thursday, August 31,
Van Loan 1.2:
storing MATLAB commands in a script;
the minimum value of a function;
true/false variables; logical expressions (IF/ELSEIF/ELSE);
Assignment 1 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, September 1:
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 0:
Friday, September 1:
Get MATLAB installed on your computer;
report on Canvas that you did, or tried to, by midnight!
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Office Hours:
Monday, September 4:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 3:
Tuesday, September 5,
Van Loan 2.1:
the FOR loop; computing sums with a loop;
random numbers with rand();
estimating the area of a circle; estimating
probabilities using random sampling.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, September 6:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 4:
Thursday, September 7,
Van Loan 3.1:
estimating the area under a curve using equally spaced points;
using the break statement to exit a FOR loop;
using a pair of FOR loops;
Assignment 2 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, September 8:
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 1 is due before midnight!
Friday, September 8.
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Office Hours:
Monday, September 11:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 5:
Tuesday, September 12,
Van Loan 2.2:
the WHILE statement;
the Collatz sequence;
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, September 13:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 6:
Thursday, September 14,
Van Loan 3.2:
Approximating a circle area with WHILE;
the "do forever" version of WHILE;
a duel; prime factors; coin tossing, gambler's ruin;
Assignment 3 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, September 15:
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 2 is due before midnight!
Friday, September 15.
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Office Hours:
Monday, September 18:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 7:
Tuesday, September 19,
Computing the elements of a sequence defined by a formula;
computing sequence elements "until" a desired value is seen;
creating lists in MATLAB and how they can be used to make a plot;
interest rates and population growth.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, September 20:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 8:
Thursday, September 21,
Van Loan 3.2:
factorials;
stepping stone sequences;
n-choose-k;
Pascal's triangle;
Assignment 4 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, September 22:
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 3 is due before midnight!
Friday, September 22.
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Office Hours:
Monday, September 25:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 9:
Tuesday, September 26,
the Collatz or "hailstone" sequence;
two-step steppingstone rules;
the Fibonacci sequence.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, September 27:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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In-Class Exam:
gcd(), mod(), &&, ||, if/elseif/else, for, while(), while(true),
break. NOT ON TEST: plotting, fprintf, MATLAB "lists".
Thursday, September 28
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Office Hours:
Friday, September 29:
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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No assignment due today!:
Friday, September 29.
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Office Hours:
Monday, October 2:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 10:
Tuesday, October 3,
Van Loan 4.1:
plotting functions; creating and working with lists of data (vectors);
"dot" operations for arithmetic with lists;
drawing triangles and other shapes as outlines, and as filled objects;
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, October 4:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 11:
Thursday, October 5,
Taylor polynomials;
Colors;
Compute and display a triangle centroid;
Design the letter "A";
Create a flag;
More about lists (which we will start calling "vectors");
Assignment 5 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, October 6,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Last day to drop!, Friday, October 6.
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Assignment 4 is due before midnight!
Friday, October 6.
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Office Hours:
Monday, October 9:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 12:
Tuesday, October 10,
Van Loan 5.1:
the difference between a script and a function;
how to write your own functions;
how to write functions that accept vector input;
some suggested project topics.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, October 11:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 13:
Thursday, October 12:
a "bumps" function;
a few more function rules:
graphics functions;
a triangle function;
a wrap function;
Gap N; random quadratic equations;
Assignment 6 is given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, October 13,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 5 is due before midnight!
Friday, October 13.
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Office Hours:
Monday, October 16:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 14:
Tuesday, October 17,
Van Loan 9.3:
the zero finding problem;
the bisection algorithm;
three attempts to write a bisection code;
solving some test problems.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, October 18:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 15:
Thursday, October 19,
function names as input;
what can go wrong with bisection?
functions with multiple zeros;
faster zero finding with the secant method;
how MATLAB solves nonlinear equations.
Assignment 7 is given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, October 20,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 6 is due before midnight!
Friday, October 20.
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Office Hours Shortened:
Monday, October 23:
2:00-3:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 16:
Tuesday, October 24,
Van Loan 6.2:
Reminders and New Facts about Vectors;
The Normal Distribution and normal random numbers;
Random Walk in 1D.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, October 25,
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 17:
Thursday, October 26,
Random Walk in 2D,
Working with Data in a 2D Matrix;
Storing Mario in a 2D Matrix;
Assignment 8 given.
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Office Hours Very Short:
2:00-2:30, Friday, October 27,
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Assignment 7 is due before midnight!
Friday, October 27.
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Office Hours:
Monday, October 30:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 18:
Tuesday, October 31,
Van Loan 12.4:
"Black and White" (grayscale) images;
saving graphics information in a file;
image read, show, write;
working with MATLAB's uint8 data;
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, November 1:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 19:
Thursday, November 2,
Van Loan 12.4:
lightening a dark image;
repairing damaged images;
finding edges in an image.
Assignment 9 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, November 3,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 8 is due before midnight!
Friday, November 3.
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Office Hours:
Monday, November 6:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
Final project posted.
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Class 20:
Tuesday, November 7,
Van Loan 7.2, 7.3:
contour plots and surface plots;
a temperature field contour;
slicing the data;
a model for cooling;
animating time data.
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, November 8:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 21:
Thursday, November 9,
a forest fire model;
a predator prey model;
a disease model;
Assignment 10 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, November 10,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 9 is due before midnight!
Friday, November 10.
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Office Hours:
Monday, November 13:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 22:
Tuesday, November 14,
Van Loan 7.1:
Unequal probability simulation;
A Transition Model;
Going to California;
Hawaiian Population Movement;
Matrix-Vector Multiplication
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, November 15:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 23:
Thursday, November 16,
Matrix-Vector Multiplication,
Linear Transforms,
Linear Transforms in 2D,
A Transform Catalog,
Snakes and Ladders.
Assignment 11 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, November 17, NO OFFICE HOURS TODAY.
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Assignment 10 is due before midnight!
Friday, November 17.
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Office Hours:
Monday, November 27, NO OFFICE HOURS TODAY.
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Class 24:
Tuesday, November 28,
The "Lights Out" puzzle
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, November 29:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 25:
Thursday, November 30,
Graph theory; definitions and tools; connections; adjacency; searching
Assignment 12 given.
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Office Hours:
Friday, December 1,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 11 is due before midnight!
Friday, December 1.
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Office Hours:
Monday, December 4:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 26:
Tuesday, December 5,
The maze problem; is a graph connected?; distance from a node;
can you get from node A to node B?
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Office Hours:
Wednesday, December 6:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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Class 27:
Thursday, December 7,
Van Loan 15.1:
Variations on the adjacency matrix;
the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP);
the brute force method; the random sampling method;
the nearest neighbor method; the edge-swap method.
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Office Hours:
Friday, December 8,
2:00-3:30, Newman Library.
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Assignment 12 is due before midnight!
Friday, December 8.
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LAST Office Hours:
Monday, December 11:
2:00-4:00, 3050 Torgersen.
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LAST Class 28:
Tuesday, December 12,
Voronoi diagrams;
One individual final project presentation;
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Tuesday, December 12,
Final project due before midnight!