Math 250.007, Ordinary Differential Equations
- When: MWF, 12:20 - 1:10, Spring 2022
- Where: Willard 258
- Prerequisites: Math 141 (Integral calculus)
- Who: Timothy Reluga,
- URL: reluga.org/250/
- Office hours: Monday 1:30 - 3:00 pm or by appointment
Math 250 is an introduction to ordinary differential equations, designed to familiarize you with the basic ideas and solution methods.
Final exam: May 5th (Thursday), 12:20-14:10 in 105 Forum
The final exam is cumulative, 50% old material, 50% new material approximately. The exam problems are largely based on homework problems from our studies.
Review sesssion Tuesday, 05/03/2022 11:00am - 12:30pm 114 McAllister -- bring your questions about homework, quizes, practices exams, ...
Syllabi
Homework assignments
Click here for Assignments. Homework will be due Wednesdays, in class. Late homework may not be accepted.
Quiz solutions
Quizzes will be Fridays. Quizzes may cover everything up to and including the preceding Wednesday lecture.
Exams
- Exam 1: February 16th, 18:15-19:30, Wartik 111(map link)
- Our exam covers all of chapter 1, sections 2.1,2.2,2.4,2.5 and sections 3.1-3.4.
- Sample exam, and answers. You should not START your studies with this sample exam. Not all of the questions it asks will be on the actual exam, and not all of questions from the actual exam are on this practice exam. When you have practiced class examples, homeworks, quizes and some older exams (see below), use this to assess your level of preparation.
- Professors and students may have lost and forgotten them, but the non-profit Internet Archive remembers a collection of practice exams for Math 250. Warning: These exams cover slightly different material than our exam this semester will cover.
- Exam 2: Wednesday, March 23rd, 18:15-19:30, Wartik 111 (map link)
- Conflict exam, March 23rd, 16:40-18:05. Sign-up)
- Makeup exam, March 28, 18:15-19:30. Sign-up
- Final exam: May 5th (Thursday), 12:20-14:10 in 105 Forum
Deadlines for signing up for the conflict exam are 5 days before the exam date. If you must sign-up for the make-up exam, you must do so by the regularly planned exam date.
Handouts
Prerequisites
(click here)
As with most math classes, this class builds on many ideas that you should have learned about in previous courses, and we will assume you know this material. But we all need a refresher sometimes, so make sure you're good with all these. I hate it when students get the hard stuff, but then lose points on easy stuff.
- Trigonometry and common values on the unit circle
- Quadratic equation for solving \(a x^2 + bx + c = 0\).
- Basic ideas of complex numbers.
- Calculus, including integration by parts and partial fractions
- Solution of linear systems by isolation and substitution
- Standard simplifications:
- \(3 x + 5 x - 2 x = 6 x\)
- \(\dfrac{8}{12} = \dfrac{2}{3}\)
- \(\dfrac{3}{e^{4x}} = 3 e^{-4x}\)
- \(2 (x + 3) + 5 (8-x) = 34 - 3 x\)
- \(e^t ( t + e^{-t}) = t e^t + 1\)
- \(\sqrt{7 + 4\sqrt{3}}-\sqrt{3} = 2\) (just kidding. Radical simplification is hard. )
Useful links:
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