APM 384 PDEs for Engineering: Fall 2014

Announcements

• Exercise sheet 7 (containing assessed questions) has been posted here. Solutions due before the lecture on Friday November 28
• Exercise sheet 6 (containing assessed questions) has been posted here.
• Solutions to the midterm can be found here
• The fifth exercise sheet (containing assessed questions) has been posted here.
• Solutions to Problem Sheet 4, some more practice problems and a list of topics for the midterm have been posted!
• The fourth exercise sheet (containing assessed questions) has been posted here. The solutions to Problem sheet 2 can be found here.
• Handout 3 on complex analysis and the solutions to the first problem sheet are now available.
• The mid-term date has been fixed. It will take place on Friday, October 24 during the usual lecture time, i.e. 4pm to 6pm. The room is EX 100.
• The third exercise sheet (containing no assessed questions) has been posted here
• The second exercise sheet (containing assessed questions) has been posted here
• The first exercise sheet and Handouts 1 and 2 have been posted.

  Course description

  In the course we will survey different topics in partial differential equations. A strong emphasis will be on examples, in particular from the physics and engineering sciences. More details can be found in the syllabus.

  Assessment

  Grades in this course will be determined by a mid-term, a final exam and roughly bi-weekly assignments that will be marked and returned to you by the TAs. The final mark will be composed as follows:

  • assigments 20% (There will be five graded assignments, and you will be given the average of the best four of your five grades.)
  • midterm 30%
  • final exam 50%.

  Course text

  The required text book for the course will be Applied Partial Differential Equations with Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems by Richard Haberman, published by Pearson Prentice. Any edition is fine, but references in classes and examples will refer to the 5th edition.
  Another good reference, with a more rigorous treatment of the material we will cover is Partial Differential Equations, An Introduction by Walter Strauss, published by Wiley.

  Assignments

  The homework assignments will be posted here in the course of the term. Approximately every other problem sheet will contain some assessed questions, these will be clearly marked. There will be five assessed sheets in total and they will be of equal weight, but you will receive the average of the best four of your five assignments.

  • Problem sheet 1. There are no assessed questions on this sheet.
  • Problem sheet 2. This sheet contains some assessed questions. Hand your answers in to your TA in your tutorial session, either on Thursday September 25 or Friday September 26.
  • Problem sheet 3. There are no assessed questions on this sheet.
  • Problem sheet 4. All questions on this sheet are assessed.
  • Problem sheet 5. All questions on this sheet are assessed.
  • Problem sheet 6. All questions on this sheet are assessed.
  • Problem sheet 7. Solutions due before the lecture on November 28.

  Write up the solutions to assessed questions, staple the sheets together and bring them to the class indicated. The TA will grade your work and return it to you in the next tutorial.
  

  Solutions to the problem sheets will be posted here, always in the week after they were due to be discussed in class:

  • Solutions to PS 1
  • Solutions to PS 2
  • Solutions to PS 3
  • Solutions to PS 4
  • Solutions to PS 5

  You are encouraged to solve the other questions in your own time and discuss any problems you may have in the tutorials. You will get much more out of the tutorials if you attempt your own solution first. I will put up a sheet with just the final answers in the handout section below, so that you can check your work.
  

  Please note that late assignments will receive zero marks! If, for whatever reason, you cannot come to the relevant class please contact me well in advance of the deadline.

  
  

  Other Material
  

  • Solutions to the midterm.
  • Practice problems for the midterm
  • List of topics for the midterm
  • Tentative week-by-week list of topics we will cover in this course, with chapter references to Haberman. This is up to date as of November 12 and may be revised again later on.
  • Handout 1 on linear algebra. This handout will be extended to cover further material we will need later in the course.
  • Handout 2 on the method of characteristics.
  • Handout 3 on complex and harmonic analysis.
  • Handout 4 on integrating factors.