This course is an introduction to differential equations, with particular emphasis on scientific applications. Topics we will cover include homogeneous and non homogeneous linear differential equations, systems of linear differential equations, non-linear systems, Laplace transforms, series solutions to equations. We study standard techniques for solving ordinary differential equations, including numerical methods, and their applications to engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, economics, social sciences.
Click here to download a copy of the course syllabus. Please visit also the course website on Blackboard.
The course textbook is Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modelling (5th edition), by Edwards & Penney.
Instructor: Raluca Tanase
Office hours: Mondays 1-2pm in MLC, Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm in Math Tower 4-120
Wednesdays 1-2:30pm in Math Tower 4-120, or by appointment.
| LEC 01 | MWF 12 - 12:53pm | Harriman Hall 137 | Raluca Tanase |
| R 01 | W 10:00am-10:53am | Library W4535 | Dyi-Shing Ou |
| R 02 | F 1:00pm - 1:53pm | Library E4330 | Timothy Ryan |
| R 03 | Tu 5:30pm - 6:23pm | Library W4525 | Timothy Ryan |
| R 04 | W 7:00pm - 7:53pm | Library W4525 | Alexandra Viktorova |
| R 05 | M 5:30pm - 6:23pm | Lgt Engr Lab 152 | Jiasheng Teh |
Almost all course administration will take place on Blackboard. Your exam and homework grades will also be reported on Blackboard. On this webpage, under Schedule & Homework you will find the most up-to-date version of the weekly course schedule and the written homework assigments.
Grades will be computed using the following scheme:
Students are expected to attend the lectures and recitations regularly and to keep up with the material presented in the lecture and the assigned reading.
You cannot learn differential equations without working problems. Each week, you will be given a set of problems, due the next Friday, in class. Do all of the assigned problems, as well as additional ones to study. Most of the homework problems will be analytic exercises, whose solutions will require only pen and paper. A few of them (clearly marked) will require the use of a computer program like Mathematica . Your solutions for the homework should be written neatly and legibly in grammatically correct mathematical English, and all steps should be clearly outlined. For the ones that require computer software, the generating code should also be turned in.
We will use Mathematica, which is a computational software program developed by Wolfram Research and used in many scientific, engineering, mathematical and computing fields, based on symbolic mathematics. Mathematica has a comprehensive documentation.
Stony Brook students can download the Windows/Mac/Linux version of Mathematica 10.3 from Softweb. You need your Stony Brook netID and netID password to log in to Softweb. To obtain an Activation Key for Mathematica you must visit the Wolfram User Portal. If it's your first time visiting the Wolfram User Portal, you must create a Wolfram ID and follow the steps in there to request an Activation Key.
In addition, you can use any of the campus SINC sites, or you can access the Virtual SINC site.