Instructor: Corey Hoelscher
Office: Hill Center, room 515
Office Phone: 732-445-5935
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:20-3:20 and 4:45-5:45
e-Mail:

Stay tuned here for important announcements about the course.

• The Final Exam Study Guide is available.
• You can also get the Midterm 1 Study Guide and the Midterm 2 Study Guide.
• Quiz, homework and exam grades will be posted on Sakai.
• Online notes about bases and dimension. This page contains the proof of the dimension theorem that I used in class. I think this proof is much better than the one in the book.

Prerequisites: CALC4, 01:640:250, and 300, or permission of department. Topics: Abstract vector spaces and linear transformations, inner product spaces, diagonalization, and canonical forms. Text book: Linear Algebra, Fourth Edition, by Friedberg, Insel and Spence.

In some sense this course is a continuation of Math 250 but to say only that would be a misrepresentation. The topics covered in this course are almost identical to the topics covered in 250 however we will cover them in a much more abstract way. We will focus on understanding concepts and proving theorems as opposed to computations.

Doing homework problems is the best way to make sure you understand the material and to reinforce what you have learned. There will be regular homework assignments posted on the course calendar below. It is your responsibility to check this calendar for the assignments and due dates. Doing homework problems is the only way to really learn math. It is easy to sit through a lecture or read a book and think you understand everything. But when you sit down to solve problems you realize there are lots of holes in your knowledge. This is why the homework is an essential part of the course.

Each homework assignment will also have assigned reading from the book. These readings are very important for several reasons. First, we will not have time to cover everything from the book in class and you will have to read the skipped parts of the book in order to be able to do the homework and be prepared for the quizzes and exams. Second, it is an important skill to be able to read and understand an abstract mathematics book and this is one of the goals of the course.

There will also be occasional quizzes in class to test the material from the homework. These will be announced in advance. There will be no make-up quizzes for any reason however the two lowest grades on either a quiz or a homework will be dropped at the end of the semester.

There are two in-class midterm exams and one cumulative final exam. The midterms are tentatively scheduled for 2/27/08 and 4/2/08. Let me know now if you have any problems making these dates as make-up exams will only be given under extreme circumstances. The final exam will be Wednesday May 14, 8:00pm-11:00pm. No notecards or calculators will be allowed on any exam or quiz.

The grading will be roughly computed according to the following table.