# Noah White

University of Califonia,
Los Angeles

# Math 115A: Linear Algebra

This is the course website for Math 115A: Linear Algebra running in Spring 2020. Please note everything on this page is provisional until the start of the quarter. All information about homework, quizes and exams will be posted here.

The syllabus contains information on the official policies for collaboration on homework, late homework, grading and changing grades.

We will be using Campuswire for this class. See below for more information.

# Instructor, TAs and office hours

 Instructor: Noah White (noah@math.ucla.edu) Office hours: Monday 4-5pm, Thursday 10-11am TA: Ziheng Ge (zihengge@math.ucla.edu) Office hours: TBA

Please check back here as office hours and locations may change.

# Communication

I would appreciate your help managing communication for the class.

Mathematical questions should be asked on Campuswire (see below). In addition you should make use of my, and the TA’s, office hours. Administrative questions should in the first instance be directed to your TA. If your TA cannot resolve your query then you should contact me.

If you need to email me, the subject line must include the string math115a. If not, then there is a good chance your email will slip through the cracks and remain unanswered.

# Textbook

Linear Algebra, by S. Friedberg, et al

Having access to a copy of the textbook will be very helpful and is recommended however you might not find it necessary. I will post links to other sources here as time goes on. Feel free to buy an old or used copy of the textbook, it wont be necessary to own any particular edition (just make sure you know which problems are the homework problems).

# Problem sets, homework and quizzes

There will be a problem set assigned every week. These will not be collected however it is strongly recommended that you complete it.

In weeks 2, 6, 8, 10, a small number questions from the problem set will be assigned as homework and collected and graded. At the end of weeks 1,2,3,5,6,8,9 a short quiz will be conducted online (accommodations will be made for different timezones).

# Lectures

Here you will find links to the lecture notes and slides as they become available. They represent more or less what we covered in lectures but not exactly, depending on how many questions I got and if we ran out of time. Most of the examples we do in class will not be in the lecture notes.

In addition, the lectures will be recorded and videos will be available somewhere (check back for details).

# Exams

There will be one midterm and a final exam.

• Midterm 1: Wednesday, 22 April 2020
• Midterm 2: Saturday/Sunday, 16/17 May 2020
• Final Exam: 9-10 June 2020

Format: The midterms and the Final will be take home exams, with some component being time limited (accommodations will be available for varying timezones).

Exam conduct: Exams will be open book and you will be able to use resources you find on the internet. I aim to not make restrictions that I cannot enforce. Here are some things that I can enforce: solutions must be presented using your own words, copying your working from any source will not be tolerated, posting exam questions to third party websites is not allowed. Note that many of these websites work actively with universities of cases of academic dishonesty. Exams will be graded based on your working rather than the numerical/symbolic answers.

Study: Here I will post some rough study guides and practice exams which might aid your study.

Your final grade will be calculated using the maximum of the following two grading schemes. Raw scores will be adjusted to account for differences in difficulty between exams.

Option 1:

30% (best 5 quiz scores) +
20% (homework scores) +
30% (combined midterm scores) +
20% (final exam score)


Option 2:

30% (best 5 quiz scores) +
20% (homework scores) +
15% (best midterm score) +
35% (final exam score)


# Schedule

This is a tentative schedule. Apart from the dates of exams, it may change. Numbers refer to sections of the textbook.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Weekend
1. 3/301
1.2
3/31
4/12
1.3
4/2
4/33
1.4
4/4-5
Quiz 1
2. 4/64
1.5
4/7
4/85
1.6
4/9
4/106
2.1 HW 1
4/11-12
Quiz 2
3. 4/137
2.1
4/14
4/158
2.2
4/16
4/179
2.2
4/18-19
Quiz 3
4. 4/2010
Review
4/21
4/22
Midterm 1
4/23
4/2411
2.3
4/25-26
5. 4/27 12
2.4
4/28
4/29 13
2.5
4/30
5/114
4.4
5/2-3
Quiz 4
6. 5/415
5.1
5/5
5/616
5.1
5/7
5/817
5.2 HW 2
5/9-10
Quiz 5
7. 5/1118
5.2
5/12
5/1319
5.2
5/14
5/1520
Review
5/16-17
Midterm 2
8. 5/1821
6.1
5/19
5/2022
6.1
5/21
5/2223
6.2 HW 3
5/23-24
Quiz 6
9. Memorial Day
(no class)
5/26
5/2724
6.3
5/28
5/2925
6.3
5/30-31
Quiz 7
10. 6/126
6.4
6/2
6/327
6.4
6/4
6/528
Review HW 4
6/6-7

# Campuswire

Campuswire is a question and answer style forum which we will be using for this class.

You can ask questions, either as yourself or anonymously. I highly encourage you to also try answering others’ questions. Teaching others is by far the most effective way to learn and solidify what you already know. The TAs and I will monitor the discussion and answer questions occasionally.

Obviously homework questions and solutions should not be posted on Campuswire, though feel free to ask for hints etc.