MATH 246: Homework

Spring 2015, Section 01XX, Professor Ron Lipsman

General Remarks

Repeating the words from the main page concerning the problems found in the Class Notes: "These may be solved either with paper and pencil or with MATLAB, at your discretion. Only the MATLAB homework will be collected and graded! No specific problems from the Notes are assigned. You are free to do as many or few as you wish. However, it is recommended that you work at least 2-3 problems from each of the sections in the problem sets. Solutions are provided to every problem. Naturally, you are encouraged to attempt to work a problem before consulting the solution."

In general, NODE contains many more than one problem of each type. You should do as many problems of each type as it takes to convince yourself that you have mastered the skill. Problems on exams will be written in a way that assumes you have acquired all the basic skills.

In the weekly assignments that follow, the section numbers in the Class Notes are indicated and any HOLR problems that are assigned for that week are noted. The latter are to be turned in by the corresponding due date. They must be solved using MATLAB. For more information see the MATLAB info page.

Note: In Problem E13 (see Week 8 below), you will find a Hint for Part (c) in HOLR. Please take the hint regarding the use of the command simplify, but you are advised to ignore the hint regarding the command factor. A similar comment applies to Problem E18.


Week 1.

Due Date: Feb 2

Problem Set A

Sections 0, I.1 & I.2


Week 2.

Due Date: Feb 9

Problem Set B, Problems: 2, 7

Sections I.3 & I.4


Week 3.

Due Date: Feb 16

Problem Set B, Problems: 11, 19
Problem Set C: Problem 1

Sections I.5 & I.6


Week 4.

Due Date: Feb 23

Problem Set C: Problems: 6, 11, 18

Sections I.7 & I.8


Week 5.

MATLAB Presentation: Numerical and Graphical Methods for 1st Order Eqns, Tuesday, Feb 24

First Exam: Thursday, Feb 26


Week 6.

Due Date: Mar 9

Problem Set D, Problems: 2, 7

Sections II.1, II.2 & II.3


Week 7.

Due Date: Mar 23

Problem Set D, Problems: 12, 15

Section II.4, II.5,


Week 8.

Due Date: Mar 30

Problem Set E, Problem: 12

Sections II.6, II.7


Week 9.

Due Date: Apr 6

Problem Set E, Problem: 13

Section II.8

Second Exam: Thursday, Apr 2


Week 10.

Due Date: Apr 13

Problem Set E, Problems: 18, 19

Section II.9

Section III.1 & III.2


Week 11.

Due Date: Apr 20

Problem Set F, Problem 2

Sections III.3-III.5


Week 12.

Due Date: Apr 27

Problem Set F, Problem 7

Section III.6

MATLAB Presentation: Homogeneous Linear Planar Systems with Constant Coefficients, Thursday, Apr 23


Week 13.

Third Exam: Tuesday, April 28

Due Date: May 4

Problem Set F, Problems: 8, 9, 10. You may do any TWO of these three problems. If you do all THREE, you may earn an extra 10 points on your total MATLAB grade.

Section III.7


Week 14.

Sections III.8 &III.9


Week 15.

MATLAB Presentation: Phase Portraits and Vector Fields for Systems that Arise from Population Models , Tuesday, May 12


Final Exam Review Session on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 13
Final Exam: Thursday, May 14, 1:30-3:30; Location To Be Announced