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Jack Baskin School of EngineeringUC Santa Cruz

AMS 212A Syllabus - Winter 2011

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AMS 212A SYLLABUS, Winter 2011


General Information
Class and Exams Schedule
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General Information
  • Textbook:  Applied Partial Differential Equations with Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems, fourth edition by Richard Haberman (Pearson - Prentice Hall; available on amazon.com)
  • Supplemental material:
    • An introduction to partial differential equations by Y. Pinchover and J. Rubinstein , Cambridge University Press
    • Mathematical methods for physics and engineering, Riley, Hobson & Bence (CUP)
    • IMPORTANT: Students are expected to master selected chapters in this book, see Lectures page for details of when the material from RHB will be used.
  • Eligibility:
    • Graduate Standing. This class assumes you master the concepts taught in AMS 211. Please check the AMS 211 Syllabus to make sure you do!
  • Homework: Homework will be given every week and answers will be graded in Section. Section is mandatory.
  • Quizzes: Will be held approximately every 10 days and will be based on one of the recently assigned homework problems.
  • Exams: There will be one mid-term exam and a final exam.
  • Grading Policy:
    • Quizzes: 25 % of total grade.
    • Mid-term: 35 % of total grade.
    • Final exam: 40 % of total grade.


Tentative schedule (this will be updated as the course proceeds)
  • Week 1 (January):
    • Jan 4: General introduction to PDEs. Famous PDEs and their behavior. The importance of scientific prejudice. The notion of covariance.
    • Jan 6: Chapter 2.1-2.4. Method of separation of variables. Application to the Heat equation.
  • Week 2:
    • Jan 11: Chapter 3, Chapter 2.5. Fourier Series. Application to Laplace's equation
    • Jan 13: Chapter 4. The wave equation.
  • Week 3:
    • Jan 18: Chapter 5.1-5.4. Sturm-Liouville theory part 1, and examples.
    • Jan 20: Chapter 5.5-5.9. Sturm-Liouville theory part 2, and more examples.
  • Week 4:
    • Jan 25: Chapter 7.1-7.6: Higher-dimensional problems part 1, and examples with Bessel functions.
    • Jan 27: Chapter 7.7-7.10: Higher-dimensional problems part 2, and examples with Legendre functions.
  • Week 5 (February):
    • Feb 1: Chapter 8. Non-Homogeneous equations (forced systems) part 1, and examples
    • Feb 3: Chapter 8. Non-Homogeneous equations (forced systems) part 2, and examples
  • Week 6:
    • Feb 8: Review and general questions
    • Feb 10: Midterm
  • Week 7:
    • Feb 15: Chapter 9.1-9.3: Green's functions for ODEs.
    • Feb 17: Chapter 9.4-9.5: Green's functions for PDEs.
  • Week 8:
    • Feb 22: Chapter 11: Green's functions for the wave and heat equations
    • Feb 24: Chapter 12.1-12.5. First-order PDEs, introduction to the method of characteristics.
  • Week 9 (March):
    • Mar 1: Chapter 12.6. Method of Characteristics for semilinear and quasilinear equations. Examples.
    • Mar 3: (Handout) Weak solutions and shocks. Entropy condition. Examples.
  • Week 10 (March):
    • Mar 8: (Handout) Canonical forms. Examples.
    • Mar 10: Review and general questions
  • Week 11:
    • Wednesday, March 16th, 4:00-7:00PM, classroom.