Course Syllabus

Contact Information

Prof. Nikola Petrov

Department of Mathematics

Email:  npetrov@ou.edu

 

Live Session:  MWF 10:00-10:50 am (Central Time), in PHSC 404

Zoom link (if needed): https://oklahoma.zoom.us/j/95952597323?pwd=Ahx6AtOSC9Kwka0XAPX72QP6tPZ4bs.1

Meeting ID: 959 5259 7323
Passcode: 11717567

 

Office Hours (tentative):  Thursday 1-2 pm or by appointment, in person in PHSC 1101, or in Zoom using the link below. 

Zoom link: https://oklahoma.zoom.us/j/95952597323?pwd=Ahx6AtOSC9Kwka0XAPX72QP6tPZ4bs.1

Meeting ID:  959 5259 7323

Passcode:  11717567

 

Course Details

 

Course Catalog Description

Physical models, classification of equations, Fourier series and boundary value problems, integral transforms, the method of characteristics.

 

Course Prerequisites 

MATH 2443 or MATH 2934, MATH 3113 or MATH 3413

 

Course Materials

All books below except the one by Farlow are freely available in pdf format for OU students from the OU library.  The books by Logan, Olver, and Al-Gwaiz can also be purchased (MyCopy Softcover) for less than $40 through the OU library.  The supremely readable book by Farlow can be purchased new on Amazon for $11.99 at the moment. 

Main text:  J. D. Logan, Applied Partial Differential Equations, 3rd edition, Springer, 2014, ISBN: 9783319124926 (pdf freely available from OU library).

Additional resources:

  1. P. J. Olver, Introduction to Partial Differential Equations, 1st edition, Springer, 2014.
  2. M. A. Al-Gwaiz, Sturm-Liouville Theory and its Applications, Springer, 2008.
  3. S. J. Farlow, Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers, John Wiley & Sons, 1982; reprinted by Dover in 1993.
  4. A. C. King, J. Billingham, S. R. Otto, Differential Equations: Linear, Nonlinear, Ordinary, Partial, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

 

Communication

  • Students are expected to check e-mail and Canvas on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with course-related communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail and Canvas be checked daily.
  • Likewise, I will be checking my email every day. I will always make every effort to reply within one business day, but do not expect a reply from me outside of regular business hours.

 

Grading Scheme

  • Breakdown.  The components of your semester grade are given in the table below.

 

Activity Weight
Gradescope homework 40 %
Two midterm exams 18 % each
Final exam 24 %

 

  • Scale.  Your semester grade will be no lower than what is indicated in the table below.

 

Semester grade A B C D F
Percentage 90.00-100.00 80.00-89.99 70.00-79.99 60.00-69.99 50.00-59.99

 

 

Course Components

 

Homework

  • Homework will be assigned in Canvas approximately once a week.  You have to upload your solutions in Gradescope (see details below). 
  • The lowest of your homework assignment scores will be dropped. 
  • Homework assignments must be submitted electronically through Gradescope. You can write things by hand, and then create a PDF file of it using a phone/tablet/scanner.  There are many free scanner apps for phones and tablets.  On my iPhone I use a very friendly and convenient free scanner app called Genius Scan. 
  • Homework assignments will not be accepted via email.
  • Late assignments will not be accepted (except in the cases listed under "Make-ups" below).
  • When submitting your homework on Gradescope, you must satisfy all of the following requirements:
    1. You must tag the pages on which each problem appears.
    2. Though Gradescope accepts either images or PDFs, the policy in this class is that you must submit a single PDF file.
    3. You may need to know how to combine several PDFs into a single file.
      1. You can easily combine pdf files using Adobe Acrobat or (on a Mac) Preview. 
      2. You can use an online service such as www.pdfmerge.com.
      3. On Windows, there are various programs that can do this such as PDF Merger and Splitter. Just google "combine PDFs in windows" to find more options.
  • If your work fails to satisfy any of the above requirements,  you may be assigned a grade of 0.

 

Exams

  • There will be two midterm exams, to be held during the usual class period, currently scheduled for:
    1. October 7 (Monday),
    2. November  18 (Monday).
  • The final exam will be comprehensive, and will take place on December 11 (Wednesday), 8-10 am. 
  • All exams will be in person, in the classroom
  • No exam grades will be dropped. 
  • You already have access to your final exam schedule, so do check whether or not you are scheduled to have several finals on the same day.
    1. University regulationsLinks to an external site. state that you are not expected to take more than two finals on the same day.
    2. If you have more than two finals on the same day, the instructor(s) giving the third and subsequent finals must offer make-ups.
    3. For that to happen, you must notify the affected instructor(s) by the end of the twelfth week of classes.

 

Make-ups

The grading scheme allows you to miss several homework assignments.  It will not be possible to make them up after the due date except in the following circumstances: 

    1. Illness or isolation as specified in the temporary university attendance policy.  An important deviation from the usual policy is that you will not be asked to provide formal documentation from a healthcare provider to excuse the absence.
    2. A conflict with a religious observance.
    3. A conflict with a Provost-approved University-sponsored responsibility (for example an away game for a varsity team).
    4. A conflict with some other legally required activity (for example jury duty or emergency military service).

Unless the absence is due to unforeseeable circumstances, you are required to notify me at least two weeks in advance.

The same policies apply to missed midterm exams.  I will give a make-up midterm exams in the early hours of the last week of classes. 

There will be no opportunities to do work for extra credit.

 

Mathematica software

  • In order to help us deal with things that are very difficult or impossible to do by hand, like drawing pretty graphs or calculating really complicated derivatives or integrals, we will be using the computer algebra system Mathematica.
  • As an OU student, you can download Mathematica for free from the OU Information Technology web-site. 
  • Install it now, it is a very useful tool which can help you check your calculations, plotting graphs of functions, etc. 
  • If your device does not support installing Mathematica, a limited online alternative that you could use in the classroom can be found at https://www.wolframcloud.com (Links to an external site.)
  • Wolfram Alpha (Links to an external site.) can also provide some similar functionality.

Help

If you need help, you are welcome to come to my office hours which will be held through Zoom (the link is given above).  If you cannot come to the regularly scheduled office hours, you may make an appointment by email. 

 

University Academic Policies and Student Support

Useful Resources

 

Important Information

At this link you can find information about:

  • academic integrity;
  • accessibility and disability accommodations;
  • emergency: armed subject/campus intruder;
  • emergency: fire alarm/general emergency;
  • emergency: weather;
  • final exams and final preparation week;
  • mental health support services;
  • OU-sponsored event participation;
  • pregnacy/chilbirth accommodation;
  • recording an live-streaming;
  • religious holidays;
  • sexual misconduct and discrimination (Title IX resources);
  • Student Success Center; etc.

More on academic integrity:

  • By enrolling in this course, you agree to be bound by the OU Academic Integrity Code.  For more information, consult the Academic Integrity Office. 
  • Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work. You may cooperate with other students when working out homework problems, but everyone must write their own solution. To be clear:
    1. You must write your own solutions in your own words, without looking at someone else’s written solution.
    2. It is cheating to turn in solutions that you have copied from someone else.
    3. It is cheating to turn in solutions that you have found online.
    4. In particular, dividing up the problems and copying each other’s solutions is not allowed.
  • Be aware that it is my professional obligation to report academic misconduct, which I will not hesitate to do. Sanctions for academic misconduct can include expulsion from the University and an F in this course, so don’t cheat. It’s simply not worth it.
  • Plagiarism is the most common form of academic misconduct at OU.  The basic assumption is that all written assignments show the student's own understanding in the student's own words. That means all writing assignments, in class or out, are assumed to be composed entirely of words generated (not simply found somewhere) by the student, except where words written by someone else are specifically marked as such with proper citation. Including other people's words in your paper is helpful when you do it honestly and correctly. When you don't, it's plagiarism.  For more information about plagiarism, see this web-page.

 

Registration and Withdrawal

If you choose to withdraw from this course, you must complete the appropriate University form and turn the form in before the deadline. If you stop attending the course and doing the coursework without doing the required paperwork, your grade will be calculated with missed homework and examination grades entered as zero. This could result in receiving a grade of F in the course. Deadlines are shown in the Academic Calendar.