Math 3210, Fall 2015 -- Manifolds and differential forms

Book: We will be following Prof. Reyer Sjamaar's lecture notes, more or less; additional likely topics include

  • Classification of compact 2-manifolds
  • Cohomology groups and Lefschetz numbers
  • Statements of Morse theory
  • Tangent and cotangent bundles
  • Office hours before the final: Monday 2:30-4:30 PM, Tuesday 1-3 PM in 515 Malott.

    There were two little midterms (15% each) in class Sep 21 (test with answers here) & Oct 26 (test with answers here). Here's the final exam with answers.

    Homework will be due on Fridays, in class, at the beginning of class. It'll be 30% of the grade.

    Homeworks 1-11 (#11 due Friday Dec 4) are here. Answers to some of homework is here; I willl continue to add to it.

    References for the diagram chases we used to prove Mayer-Vietoris:

  • These notes, p1-7
  • The final exam (40%) will be Wed, December 16 at 7:00 PM. I presume it's in the usual room, but have burned before: watch this space!

    Class dates:

  • --, 26, 28 Aug
  • 31, 2, 4 Sep
  • --, 9, 11
  • 14, 16, 18
  • 21*, 23, 25
  • 28, 30, 2 Oct
  • 5, 7, 9
  • --, 14, 16
  • 19, 21, 23
  • 26*, 28, 30
  • 2, 4, 6 Nov
  • 9, 11, 13
  • 16, 18, 20
  • 23, --, --
  • 30, 2, 4 Dec

  • I usually set up my tests so that a B is ~50% and A is ~70%. There are many grounds on which you should welcome this, e.g., if you make a tiny error worth 5% that's very unlikely to be the difference between an A and a B. I'm warning you now so when you run into a problem you can't do, you'll just move on to another one.

    Midterm 1: A 70%+, B 50%+, C 30%+