Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Forms by John and Barbara Hubbard, available at the COOP.
Instructor: David Kazhdan
(kazhdan@math)
Office Location: 65 Mt.Auburn St. (rear) 103
Phone: 495-5363
Office Hours: Monday 2-3, Wednesday 2-3
Course Assistants: Noah Snyder (nsnyder@fas) and Alex Saltman (saltman@fas)
The CA's will arrange the time and place for review sections.
Mathematics 23 is a new honors course, specifically designed for students with strong mathematics backgrounds who are seriously interested in continuing in the theoretical sciences. The prerequisites are Mathematics 1b or a grade of 4 or 5 on the Calculus BC Advanced Placement Examination. Taking 23a and 23b satisfies the same requirements as Math 21a and 21b, or 25a and 25b.
This course has a double goal-to help you master this particular material and to teach you to carry out rigorous arguments in general. During the lectures I will sometimes only outline the ideas and leave for you the task of filling the details. If you have any difficulties please do not hesitate to ask questions (either during the lecture or afterwords).
You must give exact answers on homeworks and exams (unless you are specifically told to find an approximate solution).
Calculators are not used in this course; they are not needed to solve any homework or exam problems, and their use is not permitted on exams or homework. Your homework and exam solutions must show your work and you must justify why your answer is correct, using ideas and methods taught in class and calculations that you write out in detail. Your solutions cannot depend upon or make any reference to machine computation. Answers given without any explanation or justification will receive no credit.
You can work as a group on a solution of homework problems, but each one should write the solutions on his/her own.
Homework will be assigned each Wednesday. It is due at the beginning of the lecture on the next Wednesday. It will be graded by the Course Assistants and returned to you at the lecture after that. There are two 1.5-hour exams, on Tuesday, October 19 and Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30-9:00 p.m., and there is 3-hour final exam.
The two exams during the semester are each worth 1/6 of your grade, and the final exam is worth 1/3 of your grade. The remaining 1/3 of your grade will be based on your homework. When computing your final grade, your lowest homework grade will be dropped.
Late homework will not be accepted for any reason, and will be given a grade of 0. It is absolutely essential that homework be done in a timely manner, or else the educational value of the homework is lost. Also, by not allowing late homework, weekly homework solutions will be able to be posted earlier than would otherwise be possible. If you have to miss a class, it is your responsibility to make sure that the grader receives your homework on time.
Homework solutions, exam reminders, and other course announcements will be posted on the Math 23b web site, http://icg.harvard.edu/~math23b.
Solutions to assignments will be posted on the web, within one week after the assignment is given.