Math 2121 (Fall 2017)
Welcome to the homepage for Math 2121: Linear algebra!
- Send questions for the instructor to emarberg@ust.hk.
- Send questions about grades to your TA.
Check out the syllabus here.
Lectures:
- L1: Mondays 3:00-4:20PM and Fridays 10:30-11:50AM, Lecture Theater D
- L2: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-10:20AM, Lecture Theater B
Office hours:
Room 3492, Lift 25-26.
Drop by anytime, or send me an email to make an appointment.
Textbooks:
Lectures and reading assignments will follow the first book.
Axler's book (available online for HKUST students) is a great supplementary text.
Grading:
- 10%: homework assignments, weighted equally
- 30%: midterm examination
- 60%: final examination
Miderm:
- The midterm will be held on 21 October from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
- Email the instructor right away if you have a conflict with this time.
- Midterm locations:
- L1: Lecture Theater J
- L2 (even student ID): Lecture Theater E
- L2 (odd student ID): Classroom 4621
- The midterm will cover Lectures 1-12 and HW 1-6.
- Practice midterm
[solutions]
- Solutions to the midterm
Final:
- The final examination will be held on 13 December from 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM.
- There will be no alternate exam times.
- For the location of the final, check here.
- The final will cover Lectures 1-24 and all homework assignments.
- Practice final
[solutions]
Schedule:
- Week 1: Linear systems, row reduction to echelon form (reading: Sections 1.1-1.2)
- Week 2: Vectors, matrix equations, linear independence (reading: Sections 1.3-1.5, 1.7)
- Week 3: Matrices as linear transformations, applications (reading: Sections 1.8-1.10)
- Week 4: Matrix multiplication, the inverse of a matrix (reading: Sections 2.1-2.3)
- Week 5: Subspaces, null and column space, dimension (reading: Sections 2.4, 2.8-2.9)
- Week 6: Determinants (reading: Sections 3.1-3.2)
- Week 7: Vector spaces, eigenvectors, and eigenvalues (reading: Sections 4.1-4.6, 5.1)
- Week 8: Similarity and diagonalisable matrices (reading: Sections 5.2-5.4)
- Week 9: Complex eigenvalues, properties of eigenvalues (reading: Sections 5.5, 6.1)
- Week 10: Inner products, orthogonality, and projections (reading: Sections 6.1-6.3)
- Week 11: Gram-Schmidt process, least-squares problems (reading: Sections 6.4-6.6)
- Week 12: Symmetric matrices, singular value decompositions (reading: Sections 7.1, 7.4)
Lectures:
Assignments:
Homework will be submitted online using WeBWorK.
Assignments will be due at midnight each Wednesday.
- First homework assignment due on 13 September.
- No homework due on 25 October.
- Last homework assignment due on 29 November.