- Course Webpage:
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- www.math.cornell.edu/~mike/4310-fa20
- We will use the Math 4310 canvas web site for textbook access, grades, and announcements, and Math 4310 Cornell piazza web site for questions and discussions.
- Description:
Linear algebra is a central component of many areas of modern mathematics, and has applications across the social and physical sciences and in engineering. You have seen in calculus how to use the derivative to approximate a differentiable function with a linear one. In linear algebra, we analyze linear functions and study their applications.- This may be the first 4000–level math course for some of you. The biggest difference you will find between this and a 3000–level course is that we will not begin with an introduction to proofs, as I assume that you have some familiarity with proofs. I expect careful attention to detail on your part. You should prepare for class by reading the textbook ahead of time; I welcome your questions in class about the text. You should stop me in class if you do not understand something I have explained. Finally, you should spend significant time making sure that your homework solutions are clear and well written.
- We will sometimes use my Macaulay2 software to aid us in exploring linear algebra. (You may also use Macaulay2 on the web).
- Lectures:
MWF 9:10 am - 10:00 am, online via zoom. See canvas site for links.
- Instructor:
Mike Stillman (503 Malott Hall, mes15@cornell.edu). Office Hours: Monday's 3:45 - 4:45 pm, and Monday's 9 - 10 pm, zoom link is on canvas.
- Teaching Assistant:
Joseph Fluegemann ( jkf68@cornell.edu). Office Hours: Tuesday's, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, zoom link on canvas.
- Prerequisites:
One of the linear algebra coures (math 2210, math 2230, math 2310, or math 2940).
- In addition, students will be expected to be comfortable with proofs. Prior knowledge of group theory is not a prerequisite.
- If you have not satisfied the prerequisites, seek permission of the instructor to take the course.
- Textbook: We will use the two textbooks below (mostly Axler!) :
- Linear Algebra, 5th edition, by Friedberg, Insel and Spence, ISBN-10: 0134860241, Pearson.
- I believe that there are only minor differences between this book and the 4th edition and the 4th international edition, although I could be wrong about that! We will also be discussing some material not covered in this book. In these cases, references and/or handouts will be provided if needed.
- Important! The opt-out date is September XX, 2020 for the online version of the Friedberg-Insel-Spence textbook. Students have until this date to decide whether to keep the digital materials and be bursar billed, or OPT-OUT and choose to acquire digital or print materials on their own. Opt out on the canvas website for this course, otherwise you will be billed!
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- Linear Algebra Done Right, 3rd edition, by Sheldon Axler, ISBN: 978-3-319-11080-6, Springer.
- This book should be a free download from our library. I really like the way it presents some topics, and I will often follow it. However, it doesn't use fields other than the reals or complexes, and there are no applications or (nontrivial) examples in this book.
