Math 341 - Computational Methods

Spring 2025 - Matthias K. Gobbert

Detailed Schedule - Last Updated 10/21/2024

This schedule is designed to give you an overview of the material to be covered and is tentative in nature. This is a living document and may be updated throughout the semester.
The section numbers refer to Kendall E. Atkinson and Weimin Han, Elementary Numerical Analysis, third edition, Wiley, 2004.
The numbers HW0, HW1, HW2, etc. in the Class column indicate homeworks "HW" due as PDF upload to Blackboard on that day.
The numbers BQ0a, BQ1a, BQ2a, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate online Blackboard quizzes "BQ" due before that class.
The numbers GQ0a, GQ1a, GQ2a, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate in-class group quizzes "GQ" during that class.
These numbers in the detailed schedule are designed to show the teaching philosophy and learning techniques associated with each class meeting.
See the Assignments area of the Blackboard site for our course for the precise due dates and times.

Class	Date	Main Topic	Section(s)
1, HW0	Tu 01/28	BQ0a, Introductions, Overview, GQ0a	Pre-assessment
2	Th 01/30	BQ1a, Gaussian elimination: reduction in appended tableau and in Matlab/Octave, GQ1a	6.1
3	Tu 02/04	BQ1b, Gaussian elimination: reduction in appended tableau and in Matlab/Octave, IQ0	6.3
4, HW1	Th 02/06	BQ1c, Gaussian elimination in Matlab/Octave, GQ0b
5	Tu 02/11	BQ2ab, Taylor's theorem in one dimension	1.1
6	Th 02/13	Taylor's theorem in one dimensions, GQ2a
7, HW2	Tu 02/18	BQ2c, Taylor's theorem in higher dimensions, GQ2b	1.2
8	Th 02/20	BQ3a, Interpolation: existence and uniqueness	4.1
9	Tu 02/25	BQ3b, Interpolation: Newton divided differences, error theorem	4.1
10, HW3	Th 02/27	Interpolation: problems with equidistant nodes, Matlab/Octave	4.2
11	Tu 03/04	BQ4a, Numerical differentiation: Taylor's theorem and methods	5.4
12, HW4	Th 03/06	BQ4b, Numerical differentiation: errors and effect of round-off, Matlab/Octave, GQ4a	5.4
13	Tu 03/11	Review
14	Th 03/13	Midterm Exam
	Tu 03/18	Spring Break
	Th 03/20	Spring Break
15	Tu 03/25	Midterm review
16	Th 03/27	BQ5ab, Numerical integration: trapezoidal and Simpson rules	5.1-5.2
17	Tu 04/01	Numerical integration in Matlab/Octave, GQ5a
18, HW5	Th 04/03	Numerical integration in Matlab/Octave
19	Tu 04/08	BQ5e, Numerical integration: Gauss-Legendre quadrature, GQ5e	5.3
20, HW6	Th 04/10	BQ5f, Numerical integration: general Gaussian quadrature	5.3
21	Tu 04/15	BQ7a, BQ7b, Rootfinding: bisection, Newton, secant methods	3.1-3.3
22	Th 04/17	BQ7c, BQ7d, Rootfinding: Newton's method in Matlab/Octave
23, HW7a	Tu 04/22	BQ7e, Systems of non-linear equations: Newton's method
24	Th 04/24	BQ8a, Numerical ODEs: problem, local truncation error, GQ8a	8.1
25, HW8	Tu 04/29	BQ8b, Numerical ODEs: basic methods, linear stability analysis	8.2-8.3
26	Th 05/01	Numerical ODEs: method survey, methods in Matlab/Octave, stiffness	8.4-8.6
27	Tu 05/06	BQ9a, Computer numbers: IEEE-standard for floating-point numbers, GQ9a	2.1
28, HW9	Th 05/08	Computer numbers: IEEE-standard for floating-point numbers	2.1
29, HW10	Tu 05/13	Review	Post-assessment
	Tu 05/23	10:30-12:30 Final Exam Note the date and time!