Math 20F: Linear Algebra, Winter 2003

Office hours: M3-4, W4-5, F1-2 and by appointment

Office: APM 5256, tel. 534-2734

Teaching assistants:

Computation of grade: Final 40%, midterm 20%, matlab 20%, quizzes (you may drop your two worst scores) 20%

Dates of exams:

Click here for instructions to find the date of your final: final

Midterm: 2/12

Quizzes: each section, except for week of midterm

Matlab assignments need to be turned in in sections. Moreover, there will be a short quiz in each section, with the problem taken from the homework assignments, or being a slight variation of a homework problem. There are NO make-up quizzes, but you may drop the worst two scores of your quizzes.

Course material: We will use the book `Linear Algebra with Applications', 6th Edition, by Steven Leon. For a tentative outline of the course click below.

course outline

This course will also include MATLAB problems. You can find the MATLAB assignments at

matlab problems

Homework assignments

Disclaimer: I will try to get the homework assignment on the net in time. Due to time and other limitations, this may not always be possible. The fact that there is no assignment posted for a particular date does therefore NOT necessarily mean that no homework is due.

for 1/14 :: Section 1.1: 1b, 6a,d,e,f,h, 8, 9. Section 1.2: 2, 5abcd, 8, 13, 18, Section 1.3: 1, 2ab, 4ab, 10, 13,

for 1/21 :: Section 1.3: 15, 17 , 23, 24, 26 Section 1.4: 4a, 6, 7d, 9aeg, 14, 18, Section 1.5: 4ac, 5ab

for 1/28 :: Section 2.1: 1, 3ad, 4, 9, Section 2.2: 2, 4, 7, 10,

for 2/4 :: Section 3.1: 6, 11, Section 3.2: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8ab, 9a-d, 11, 14 ab, 18, 19,

for 2/11: NO QUIZ, but material is relevant for midterm! Section 3.3: 2, 5, 6, 12, 14, Section 3.4: 2, 5, 8, 11, Section 3.5: 1, 5, 6, 9,

for 2/18:: Section 3.6: 1, 2ab, 7, 10, 17, 18, Section 5.1: 1a, 3ac, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13 (for problems 7 and 9 see examples 5 and 7 in Section 5.1)

for 2/25:: Section 5.2: 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, Section 5.3: 1, 2, 5, 7,

for 3/4:: Section 5.5: 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 16, Section 5.6: 1, 2, 5(look at Theorem 5.6.3), 8, Section 6.1: 1adg, 2,

for 3/11:: Section 6.1: 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 18, Section 6.3: 1ac, 2ac, 6, 10, 19, Section 6.4: 1a, 4abcd (check only whether matrices are Hermitian), 5abc

relevant for final: Section 6.4: 6, 11, Section 6.5: 1, 2ac, 5

FINAL: time: Monday, March 17, 3-6. (preliminary info) The same rules apply for the final as for the midterm: One hand-written cheat sheet is allowed, no calculators or other notes. The material will go over the whole course, but with a clear emphasis on what has been done after the midterm. For those who want to get started with their preparation, I have posted a practice exam below (for problem 7: think of L as a 3x3 matrix, and the vectors to be column vectors).

Review session: Thursday, March 13 5:00 p.m.--6:50 p.m. HSS 2250

Office hours for exam week:

practice final ps-file

practice final pdf-file


MIDTERM: The material for the midterm will go until the last homework assignment. The problems will be similar to homework problems. You are allowed to use one hand-written cheat sheet, but no caculators, books or other notes. You can practice for the midterm by doing other, similar homework problems, or do the problems of the midterm posted below which I gave a while ago. You need not worry about the rank of a matrix, which we have not done yet. (clicking on it should give you the problems, if your computer can deal with ps-files, or try the pdf-file). Of course, posting my previous midterm does not guarantee that the midterm this year will be the same or very similar.

Reviews: Monday 2/10, 5-7pm: Solis 104, Tuesday 2/11, 5-7pm: calc lab (second floor of APM)

practice midterm ps-file

practice midterm pdf-file

To give you an idea of the course material, here are my assignments from last year. There will probably be a few changes, so only the assignments above the line will be relevant.

Solutions: The TA's have written up solutions which you can find on http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~emamou/