First lectures: content, practical details & more.?

Welcome to Mathematics 3!

There are a few questions I will discuss with you in the first lecture on Tuesday; if you cannot attend, but have opinions, please let me know by e-mail.

• What other courses do you attend this semester? Any particular demands or desiderata? Any term paper deadlines where it would be unwise for Math 3 to put "this requires your full attention now and would be hard to pick up later" topics?
• "Workshops" like Mathematics 2.  Last Mathematics 3, I did by popular demand, I moved my consultation hours to room 1220 - but not too many did actually show up.  
  • Is there an actual demand for it?  
  • If so, when suits you? Check your calendars. 
• We put up three lectures the first few weeks in order to get quicker to new topics.  We can have some problem-solving session as part of either lectures or - if applicable - workshop.
• Also, there will be a few changes the first couple of weeks of February. But those depend a bit on the above ... 
• Canvas. How would you like stuff? In particular, if you took Mathematics 2 this fall: what worked fine and what did not?
• Contact student.  I want one or two that both you and myself can use actively for feedback.  Last year we met weekly to discuss need for recaps and adjustments.  A volunteer or two, please.

And finally, content of the first few lectures: 

• This year I will start with a bit more "elementary, but maybe not so familiar" linear algebra.  E.g., Ax as a linear combination of the columns of A, a matrix as a linear transformation ... things that can be done with Math 2, but that does not necessarily look like what you are used to.
• Then I will go on with transformations from Rⁿ to R^m, and do differentiation with linear algebra notation.  (Derivatives should be well-known, but gathering everything into matrices and vectors could require a bit of practice.)
• I will put up a note shortly.  Last year's note set (landscape, so you can print out and annotate) can be found at last year's course web site, but the first few lectures will be in slightly different order. 

See you on Tuesday!

Nils