Course information.
The course will develop the basic ideas of differential equations with an emphasis on applications. Although some of the most natural applications are in Physics and Engineering, students are encouraged to apply what they learn into their own field of interest. Suggestions in that reagard are welcomed.
We will develop some computer based applications with the software Mathematica. Students can buy a licensed copy of Mathematica at Seawolves Marketplace by $ 5.00 (you must have your student ID with you in order to buy it).

The textbook used is Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Fourth Edition, by C. Henry Edwards and David E. Penny. You are free to use other books if you wish, but keep in mind that most assigned exercises will be from the textbook. Exercises which are not from the textbook will be posted on the webpage.
Homework problems will be assigned every week and they must be submitted before the deadline (see below for a list of homework problems). Late homework will not be accepted.
There will be a 10-15 minutes quiz every Monday. We will have a Midterm on Mon, Aug 2nd, and the Final exam on
Thu, Aug 19th.

Classes are on M, W, and Th from 6:00pm to 9:05pm at Harriman Hall 116.

Here you can get the syllabus, including the grading policy.

This course has a grader: Ki Song (kiwisquash@math.sunysb.edu).

Office hours.
My office hours are on Mon from 3:30pm to 5:30pm at the MLC and Thu from 3:30pm to 5:30pm  at my office (2-114, second floor of the Math Building; don't you know where the Math Bld is? Click here for a map). Recall, however, that the MLC is a place for helping students; hence, you may come to the MLC any time you want and certainly you will find a tutor there to help you.
If this schedule does not work for you, send me an email (disconzi@math.sunysb.edu) to set up an appointment.

Schedule and homework assignments.
Here are some important dates:
Midterm: Monday, Aug 2nd.
Final Exam: Thursday, Aug 19th.

Below are the homework assignments together with the dates they are due. This schedule might change according to the pace of the course. Late howework will not be accepted.

Unless otherwise specified, all problems are from the textbook Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Fourth Edition, by C. Henry Edwards and David E. Penny. In the table below the first column indicates the homework number, the second one indicates the exercies in the from SEC: Exercises, where exercises in a sequence are indicated with a hyphen, e.g., 1.6: 2-7 means exercises 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from section 1.6. Problems which are not from the textbook are marked with a link where you can download them from. The fully graded problems are indicated in red (if you don't know what I mean see the grading policy).

If you don't have the textbook, you can get the exercises here.

Every Monday there will be a 10-15 minutes quiz.

HW	Exercies	Due date	Comments
1	1.1: 1-3, 7, 10, 20, 22, 25, 27, 28	Mon July 19th
2	1.1: 29, 30, 32, 34 1.2: 3, 6, 26 1.4: 4, 10, 12, 22, 26, 30, 36, 41, 52 1.5: 1, 7, 18, 33, 34, 38, 41 1.6: 4, 12, 22, 28, 46, 48,  71, 72 2.1: 10-13, 21, 23, 35 Do also this problem.	Mon July 26th
3	2.2: 2, 9, 11, 21 2.3: 2, 4, 10, 21, 22, 24, 30 3.1: 4, 8, 10, 14, 20, 25, 34, 40, 46	Thu July 29nd
4	1.3: 3, 11, 14, 18, 25, 26 2.4: 4, 8, 13, 28 2.6: 3, 5, 8 3.2: 4, 5, 16, 23, 3.3: 5, 8, 10, 16, 24 The practice midterm (see below) is also due as a HW	Mon Aug 2nd	sections 1.3, 2.4 and 2.6 involve computer applications and are optional
5	3.4: 2, 4, 10-12, 14, 19, 24, 27 3.5: 3, 6, 10, 14, 20, 38, 55 3.6: 4, 6, 8, 19-23, 30 3.7: 1, 2, 3, 10, 14	Mon Aug 9th	21-23 of sec. 3.6 are optional
6	4.1: 2, 6, 12, 16, 24, 25, 26, 27	Thu Aug 12th	graphs in 12 and 16 are optional
7	4.2: 6, 10, 21, 22, 38 5.1: 3-5, 13, 18, 22, 31 5.2: 4, 12, 30	Mon Aug 16th
8	5.4: 2, 12, 18, 27 6.1: 1-3, 14, 18 6.2: 3-7, 13-16, 20, 33 6.3: 1, 14 6.4: 1, 18 6.5: 1-4, 7.1: 2, 4 7.2: 4, 10, 12	Thu Aug 19th	Chapter 6 is an extra credit

You can find solutions to some of the HW problems here (let's thank Ki Song for writing these).

Announcements and extra material.
Here you can find a list of common mistakes done by students. Even though this seems very simple, make sure you understand the math involved in order to avoid such mistakes.

Here you can find a set of examples with Mathematica.

Here you can get an schedule for the remaining of the course.

On Wed, July 28th, class will be held at the Computer Science SINC Site, room 2116 ofthe computer Science Building.


These are the most important theorems and definitions you should know for the midterm (references are from the textbook): theorem 1 of sec. 1.5 (page 51);  theorem 1 of sec. 3.1 (page 149), definition on page 152;  theorems 3 and 4 of sec. 3.1 (page 154); theorem 5 of sec. 3.1 (page 156); theorem 6 of sec. 3.1 (page 158) and theorem 3 of sec. 3.3 (page 180).


Here are some key ideas, formulas and theorems you have to know (references are from the textbook). In section 3.4, starting from equations (5) and (15), know how to get equations (19), (20), (21) and (23); Table in figure 3.5.1 of section 3.5 (page 205); Theorem 1 in section 3.5 (page 209); Ressonance in mechanical vibrations and electrical circuits (sections 3.6 and 3.7); Know how to use formulas (14) and (15) from section 4.2 (page 261); Know how to find eigenvalues and eigenvectors; Theorem 1 of section 5.2 (page 306) with the three steps below it, understanding cases of distinct, complex and repeated  eigenvalues. You should also review the quizzes.

Due to the Final, I'll have my office hours on Tuesday, 7pm-9pm, in my office, instead of the regular time on Thursday (no changes in Monday office hours though)

Anonymous feedback.
Students are encouraged to bring suggestions and to discuss with me any concerns they may have. But if you don't feel comfortable about seeing me to discuss anything you think is not being properly handled in the course, here you have the opportunity to send me some anonymous feedback.