This is a list of all courses offered by the Math Department.  Not all courses are offered each year.  What is provided is a general description of the courses and the prerequisites.  The actual content may vary.

Offered Course List Archived Courses

Math 240 - Introduction to Linear Algebra

Description

Basic concepts of linear algebra: vector spaces, applications to line and plane geometry, linear equations and matrices, similar matrices, linear transformations, eigenvalues, determinants and quadratic forms. All sections of the course will use the software system MATLAB. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: MATH 240 or MATH 341 or MATH 461.

Prerequisites

a C- or better in (MATH 131 or MATH141)

Topics

Systems of Linear Equations

Gaussian elimination
Matrix operations
Finding the inverse
Solution spaces

Determinants

Definition
Evaluation
Minors
Cramer's Rule

Vectors in 2- and 3- space

Geometric and algebraic definitions
Dot product
Projections

Vector Spaces

Euclidean space
Subspaces
Linear independence
Basis and dimension
Row space, rank
Length and angle
Gram-Schmidt
Least squares

Linear Transformations

Definition
Kernel and range
Representation as matrices

Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Definition
Diagonalization
Orthogonal diagonalization
Symmetric matrices

Applications

Differential equations
Quadratic forms
Numerical methods