Math 336- Mathematical Modeling
Spring Semester, 2007

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San Diego State University -- This page last updated 24-Apr-07


Assignment Information

This page will give a complete listing of the reading and homework assignments that you are required to do. There is also a tentative listing of the Exam schedule for the semester. Several students wanted access to the Math 121 Computer Lab Manual. The hyperlink above gives you access to the lab manual, which contains many of the computer techniques that will be used in Excel or Maple. The computers in GMCS 422/428 have many good software packages that can be used in this course. For home access to Maple or MatLab, student will need to download and X-Terminal server, then login to a rohan account, which students can obtain through the library or the Web Portal. The command xmaple on rohan should produce a version of Maple that resembles the one used in class. Additional information on downloading and X-Terminal server is available through my Math 342A notes.

Week 14: Most students have provided information on their PNAS articles that they want to report upon. For more detailed information, go to the project link page with its hyperlink here. The lecture material for the remainder of the semester will concern differential equations. (See text Chapter 10 and 11.) Initial work will concentrate on the qualitative behavior of differential equations, and supplemental material is available on my website. There are homework problems on qualitative behavior of differential equations that will be due at the time of the final. A Take Home final is available and will be due at the time of the Final on Tuesday May 15, 10:30-12:30.

Week 12: The Take-Home Exam is available through this website. Exam 2 (Thur. Apr. 26) will follow the same format of the first exam. Many students have provided information on their PNAS articles that they want to report upon. For more detailed information, go to the project link page with its hyperlink here. The lecture material for the remainder of the semester will concern differential equations. (See text Chapter 10 and 11.) Initial work will concentrate on the qualitative behavior of differential equations, and supplemental material is available on my website.

Grades are available through the hyperlink here.

Homework Solutions

Below are links to homework solutions and a list of the specific problems graded.

  1. Homework 1: p. 7. The Problems graded were 2c, 3d, 5b, 9, and Project 1.1. Solutions are available. (Value 15+30)
  2. Homework 2: Logistic and Nonlinear Problems. The Problems graded were 2c, 4d, 5b, 6b, 7c, and 8c. Solutions are available. (Value 20+30)
  3. Homework 3: Beetle Problem. The Problems graded were 1,c,d. Solutions are available. (Value 2+15)
  4. Homework 4: Linear and Nonautonomous Problems. The Problems graded were 1a, 3b, and 4a and d. Solutions are available. (Value 11+25)
  5. Homework 5: p. 16 and p. 31. The Problems graded on p. 16 were 6 (a,b) and on p. 31 were 2h and 5. Solutions are available. (Value 11+15)
  6. Take Home Exam 1 Solutions and Exam 1 Solutions.
  7. Homework 6 : p. 48. The Problems graded on p. 48 were 4b and 7a. Solutions are available. (Value 7+10)
  8. Homework 7: The Problems graded were 2a, 3b, and 5b. Solutions are available. (Value 30+35)
  9. Take Home Exam 2 Solutions and Exam 2 Solutions.

Exam Information

The Exam schedule is given below. There will be 2 Exams and a Final this semester. All Exams will be given in the Computer Lab this semester.

Exam 1: Tues. Mar. 13
Exam 2: Thur. Apr. 26
Final: Tues. May 15, 10:30-12:30

Note: The computer lab in GMCS 422 is open for most of the hours 9-10 M-Th, 9-4:00 F, and 9-4:00 Sat. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing this lab.

Course Drop Deadlines: This semester the administration has a strict policy that all drops must occur in the first 3 weeks of classes. Consult the new campus rules.

Old Assignments

Week 1: Several of you might be interested in forming a Team and entering the Math Modeling Contest. This is a national competition, where a good performance wins glory and good offers to graduate schools. Interested students should contact Dr. Kristin Duncan. You should begin by reading the Introduction section in the lecture notes, then read p. 1-7 in the text and the Logistic Growth notes from Math 121.There is a hyperlink to the Excel spreadsheet of the material presented in class on fitting discrete dynamical systems to yeast populations. The homework assignment is on p. 7: Problems 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Modify Problem 3 c to be the sequence {1, 3, 7, 15, 31, ...}The solution to the given problem requires a cubic equation, so is not reasonable, but bonus points will be given for anyone finding the solution.) and Project 1.1. These problems are due Thursday, Feb. 1. In addition, there is a problem directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Thursday, Feb. 8.

Week 2: Note the change in Problem 3c above. This week continues the material on discrete dynamical systems. Read the lecture notes on Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and U. S. Population. The homework assignment is a problem directly associated with the lectures on Logistic growth and Ricker's model, which will be due Thursday, Feb. 8. More homework associated with Logistic growth and Nonlinear dynamical models are found through the hyperlink and are also due Thursday, Feb. 8. In addition, there are homework problems for the Nonautonomous dynamical models found through another hyperlink and are due Thursday, Feb. 15.

Week 3: Read the lecture notes on Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and U. S. Population. The homework assignment is a problem directly associated with the lectures on Logistic growth and Ricker's model, which will be due Thursday, Feb. 8. More homework associated with Logistic growth and Nonlinear dynamical models are found through the hyperlink and are also due Thursday, Feb. 8. In addition, there are homework problems for the Nonautonomous dynamical models found through another hyperlink and are due Tuesday, Feb. 20 .

Week 4: Read the lecture notes on U. S. Population and the text Section 1.2-1.4. There are homework problems for the Nonautonomous dynamical models found through another hyperlink and are due Tuesday, Feb. 20. Homework for Section 1.2-1.4 are on p. 16 Problems 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 and on p. 31 Problems 1 (c, e, f), 2 (c, e, h, j), 5, and 6, which will be due Thursday, Feb. 22.

Week 5: Read the text Section 1.4 on Systems of Difference Equations. The homework assignment is p. 48 Problems 4, 6 , and 7, which will be due Tuesday, Mar. 20.

Week 6: There is a Take Home Exam available. This is due Tuesday, Mar. 13. You are to work this exam by yourself though you can talk to each other about techniques of solution. Exam 1 will occur on Tuesday, Mar. 13 and will have problems that are similar to the ones on the Take Home Exam (though clearly significantly shorter than the Take Home Exam). We will meet in GMCS 422 on the day of the exam, and the exam will be open book and open notes. You may want to have your work for the Take Home Exam on a flashdrive for use during the exam. The Excel Spreadsheet and Maple Worksheet from lecture are available for downloading. Be sure to check that your class account in GMCS 422 works before coming to the exam.

Week 7: There are Spreadsheets in Excel from March 15 and March 22. In addition, there are Maple worksheets from March 15 and March 22 available for downloading. The homework assignment is a set of problems on discrete dynamical models directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Thursday, Apr. 12 .

Week 9: This week we finish the lectures on systems of discrete dynamical models and begin Monte Carlo techniques. There is reading material in the text in Chapter 5. The lecture material done on the computer are available for downloading: Spreadsheets in Excel from March 15 and March 22 and Maple worksheets from March 15 and March 22. The homework assignment is a set of problems on discrete dynamical models directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Thursday, Apr. 12. I have decided that projects this year are going to be reports based on articles from the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). For more detailed information, go to the project link page with its hyperlink here.

Week 10: Students are beginning to give me information on the PNAS articles that they want to report upon. For more detailed information, go to the project link page with its hyperlink here. This week we continue lectures on Monte Carlo techniques. There is reading material in the text in Chapter 5. In addition, you can find some MatLab programs on a Word document and the individual programs: comppi.m, mcint.m, and g.m. Supplemental materials are available for a population model and modeling a hospital. One homework assignment is a set of problems on discrete dynamical models directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Thursday, Apr. 12. The homework assignment for Monte Carlo methods consists of the Problems on p. 181, #1, 4, and 5 and a set of Problems on Monte Carlo methods directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Thursday, Apr. 19.

Week 11: The Take-Home Exam is available through this website. Exam 2 (Thur. Apr. 26) will follow the same format of the first exam. Many students have provided information on their PNAS articles that they want to report upon. For more detailed information, go to the project link page with its hyperlink here. This week we continue lectures on Monte Carlo techniques. There is reading material in the text in Chapter 5. In addition, you can find some MatLab programs on a Word document and the individual programs: comppi.m, mcint.m, and g.m. Supplemental materials are available for a population model and modeling a hospital. The homework assignment for Monte Carlo methods consists of the Problems on p. 181, #1, 4, and 5 and a set of Problems on Monte Carlo methods directly associated with the lectures, which will be due Tuesday, Apr. 24. MatLab programs for random death processes are available: pop.m and Mpop.m, while two additional programs for a simplified version of playing craps is available: dice.m and craps.m. More homework links will be available soon. Additional homework are a second set of Monte Carlo problems. These will be due Tuesday, May 1.