ACM 106a: Introductory Methods of Computational Mathematics
Instructor: Prof. Peter Schröder, 286 Jorgensen, office hours by appointment.
TA: Ari Stern, 228 Guggenheim, office hours Mondays 2–3pm. (If you cannot make this time due to a direct class conflict, you can also email to make an appointment.)
Lectures: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30–11:55 AM, in 3 BBB (Beckman Laboratory of Behavioral Biology)
Textbook: Stoer & Bulirsch, Introduction to Numerical Analysis, 3rd edition, Springer, 2002.
Mailing
List/Forum: http://groups.google.com/group/acm106
This list will be used for official course announcements and
discussion, and all students should sign up. (No Google/Gmail account
is required.)
Notes
Bézier and B-Spline Techniques (scanned PDFs, access restricted to caltech.edu)
The book's authors also have a high-quality PDF on their web site containing selections from the book, including all of chapters 2 and 5. Click here to download. Be sure to also download the list of errata, which corrects some typos/errors in the book.
Homework and Grading
Policies
Problem sets will generally be due every other Thursday, starting on October 18, and should be handed in at the beginning of class on the due date. (Email is not an acceptable substitute for handing in a paper copy of the assignment.) These will contain theory problems, as well as MATLAB programming assignments. For MATLAB problems, attach printouts of all of your code, as well as any program output (text, graphs, etc.) indicated in the assignment. You are allowed to collaborate by discussing the problems with other students, but your work and your code must be your own.
There will be a total of approximately 5–6 problem sets, which will be weighted equally towards the final grade. There will be no midterm or final exam.
Assignments
- Problem Set 1 [PDF]. Handed out Thursday, October 11. Due Thursday, October 18. Solutions [PDF].
- Problem Set 2 [PDF]. Handed out Monday, October 22. Due Thursday, November 1. Solutions [PDF].
- Problem Set 3 [PDF]. Handed out Tuesday, November 6 (modified November 13). Due Thursday, November 15. Solutions [PDF].
- Problem Set 4 [PDF]. Handed out Monday, November 19. Due Thursday, November 29. Solutions [PDF].
- Problem Set 5 [PDF]. Handed out Friday, November 30. Due Thursday, December 13.
MATLAB
MATLAB is a software package and programming language for scientific computing, and will be used for all programming assignments in this course. No previous knowledge of MATLAB is assumed, but you will need access to a computer with MATLAB installed on it. Caltech students can download MATLAB for free at the link below; MATLAB is also available on many of the library and lab computers on campus.
Download MATLAB from the IMSS software page