MTH 255H Announcements

ANNOUNCEMENTS
MTH 255H - Winter 2006

3/8/06

The final will be during the regularly scheduled time: Tuesday, March 21, from 12-1:50 PM, in Kidder 280.

The final will be slightly less than twice as long as the midterm, and will cover material from the entire course.
The old material is described below in the midterm announcement.
The new material emphasizes Lessons 8-13 (surface integrals and applications) in the Study Guide, as well as the related material in Lesson 14.
The relevant sections in the text are Chapters 19 and 20. Please bear in mind that the presentation in class differed somewhat from that in the text; we covered topics in class that are not in the text, and there is material in the text which we did not cover.
If you are looking for extra problems to practice on, the Review Exercises and Check your Understanding questions at the end of each chapter are especially good.
You may bring two 3″×5″ index cards (both sides) of handwritten notes, or the equivalent, as well as the handout containing the formulas for divergence and curl in spherical and cylindrical coordinates.
Other rules are as announced below for the midterm.

2/27/06
A copy of the formula sheet I showed in class today, showing how to express gradient, curl, and divergence in rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates, can be found here.: You can find derivations of these formulas in the excellent book Div, Grad, Curl and All That by Schey, which appears not to be available at the library.
JAVA versions of the vector fields I showed in class today can be found here.

2/16/06
You may want to take another look at the transparency I showed earlier, in the context of line integrals, which illustrates how to relate mathematical text, equations, and pictures.

2/13/06
Some further information about the quaternions can be found at MathWorld or at the Wikipedia.: A link to some pictures I took in 2004 at the Brougham Bridge in Dublin, where Hamilton discovered the quaternion multiplication table in 1843, can be found here.

2/10/06
Below are the answers to the midterm; an answer key is posted outside my office.: 1. Figures 2 and 4 are conservative; Figures 1 and 3 are not.; 2. 9; 3. π²/2; 4. 5; 5. 24 grams; 6. (a) (drawn on answer key) (b) could be either (0,7/10) or (0,17/10) (c) 0; EC: 2π for the large circle and the ellipse; 0 for the small circle.

2/9/06
The College of Science mail server has been down all afternoon, so any mail sent recently probably didn't reach me. Please resend any important messages to my ONID address:: drayt@onid.orst.edu

2/8/06
There will be no lab tomorrow, but rather a further review. Come prepared to ask questions; I'll also being some problems to work on.

2/6/06

The midterm will be Friday 2/10/06 in class.

The primary focus of the midterm is Lessons 5-7 (line integrals) in the Study Guide, which however incorporate material from the previous lessons; everything in the first 7 lessons is fair game.
The most relevant sections in the text (MHG) are §17.3 and §18.1-§18.3. Please bear in mind that the presentation in class differed somewhat from that in the text; we covered topics in class that are not in the text, and there is material in the text which we did not cover.
A table of the relevant sections in the text can be found on the inside front cover of the study guide.
The Exercises at the end of each section in MHG are an excellent skills check, and the Check your Understanding questions at the end of each chapter are an excellent review.
The exam is closed book, and calculators may not be used.
You may bring a 3″×5″ index card (both sides) of handwritten notes;
Please write your exams in pencil or black ink (blue ink is OK).
Wednesday's class will be devoted to review. Come prepared to ask questions!

2/1/06
This week's homework has been updated on the homework page.: The text on reserve at the library is the previous edition. In particular, the problem numbers do not match. I will try to post PDF copies of the assigned homework whenever possible. However, either edition may be used as an excellent source of additional problems to check your understanding.

1/28/06
A nice example of a vector field is provided by the current wind patterns in the San Francisco Bay, which you can find here; take a look at the "Streakline" and "Archive" links.

1/27/06
A figure similar to the one I drew on the board today can be found here. It involves flux (which we'll talk about later), rather than work, but the idea of "diagramming equations" is similar. This picture was drawn by Kerry Browne as part of his PhD thesis in Physics Education here at OSU, entitled Student Use of Visualization in Upper-Division Problem Solving.

1/19/06
As pointed out in class today, the first figure in yesterday's handout on vector differentials was incomplete. The version posted online is correct, however, and can be found here.

1/13/06
Strange but true: The 13th of the month is more likely to be a Friday than any other day of the week!: Give up? Further information is available here.

1/12/06
You can use this website to determine the magnetic deviation (angle between true north and magnetic north) for any location. You will need to know the latitude and longitude -- or the zip code. (Enter a zip code, press the button labeled "Get Location", then press the button labeled "Compute".): You can find out more about magnetic declination at this site. Especially interesting are the links to online maps available in the section on determining the declination. (Search for "On-line Isogonic charts".)

1/7/06
The criteria I will use to evaluate written work can be found here. We will discuss the goals of this course, including these criteria, on Monday.

10/17/05
My standard grading scheme is outlined here. I reserve the right to make small changes to these rules.
Please read the guidelines on the homework page, which also apply to the writeups for the group activities.
A rough schedule for MTH 255 can be found here. Please use this as a guide only.
You are encouraged to browse the website of the closely related Vector Calculus Bridge Project.