Differential equations

Lectures: 3 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Recitations: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

18.03 Differential Equations has 18.01 Single Variable Calculus as a prerequisite. 18.02 Multivariable Calculus is a corequisite, meaning students can take 18.02 and 18.03 simultaneously.

Edwards, C., and D. Penney. Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. ISBN: 9780136006138.

Note: The 5th Edition ( ISBN: 9780131457744) will serve as well.

Students also need two sets of notes "18.03: Notes and Exercises" by Arthur Mattuck, and "18.03 Supplementary Notes" by Haynes Miller.

This course is a study of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE's), including modeling physical systems.

Topics include:

The lecture period is used to help students gain expertise in understanding, constructing, solving, and interpreting differential equations. Students must come to lecture prepared to participate actively. At the first recitation, students are given a set of flashcards to bring to each lecture. They are used during class sessions to vote on answers to questions posed occasionally in the lecture. In case of divided opinions, a discussion follows. As a further element of active participation in class, students will often be asked to spend a minute responding to a short feedback question at the end of the lecture.

These small groups meet twice a week to discuss and gain experience with the course material. Even more than the lectures, the recitations involve active participation. The recitation leader may begin by asking for questions or hand out problems to work on in small groups. Students are encouraged to ask questions early and often. Recitation leaders also hold office hours.

Another resource of great value to students is the tutoring room. This is staffed by experienced undergraduates. Extra staff is added before hour exams. This is a good place to go to work on homework.

Students should strive for personal mastery over the following skills. These are the skills that are used in other courses at MIT. This list of skills is widely disseminated among the faculty teaching courses listing 18.03 as a prerequisite. At the moment, 140 courses at MIT list 18.03 as a prerequisite or a corequisite.

The Ten Essential Skills is also available as a (PDF).

Each homework assignment has two parts: a first part drawn from the book or notes, and a second part consisting of problems which will be handed out. Both parts are keyed closely to the lectures. Students should form the habit of doing the relevant problems between successive lectures and not try to do the whole set the night before they are due.

There are 3 one-hour exams held during lecture session and a three-hour comprehensive final examination.

The final grade will be based on a cumulative total of 885 points computed as follows:

This course employs a series of specially written Java™ applets, or Mathlets. They are used in lecture occasionally, and each problem set contains a problem based around one or another of them.

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