This will be updated frequently. Check back often.
All readings are from Blanchard, Devaney, and Hall, unless otherwise noted.
| Class | Date | Reading | Comments |
| 1 | Monday, April 2 | |
|
| 2 | Thursday, April 5 | Section 1.1. Section 1.2, only up to p. 27. | In class, I'd like to first go over the logistic model,
pp. 8-10. If you have questions on the material before p. 8, be
ready to ask questions on them. If there aren't questions, we'll
begin with the logistic model. This model is important; it will
come up again and again. We'll then spend a while discussing
predator-prey systems, pp. 11-12. Section 1.2 is more technical and, perhaps, less interesting than 1.1. Try to keep sight of the forest. Don't get lost in the trees of all the algebraic stuff. |
| 3 | Monday, April 9 | Finish section 1.2. Feel free to skip the "Savings Model" section. Read all of 1.3, but skip the RC Circuit section, pp. 43-45. | The sections we're skipping aren't difficult, but cover applications that I suspect will be of little interest or relevance to many of you. |
| 4 | Thursday, April 12 | Section 1.4. Skip "A Nonautonomous Example" and "An RC Circuit
with Periodic Input". Section 1.5. All. |
Section 1.4 is, I think, straightforward and perhaps a little
tedious. The key thing is to understand what Euler's method is and
how it works. We'll then do an example in class, and talk some
about when and when not to trust numerical work. I expect to spend the bulk of classtime discussing and pondering Section 1.5. This might be difficult reading; it's the most theoretical stuff we've done so far, and thus has a different flavor than the previous readings. Give it a try, but if it doesn't make perfect sense, don't panic. |
| 5 | Monday, April 16 | Sections 1.6 | |
| 6 | Thursday, April 19 | Sections 1.7 | |
| 7 | Monday, April 23 | Sections 1.8, 2.1 | Feel free to skip "Mixing Problems Revisited", pp 112-115. I don't think we'll discuss this in class. (There may be a homework problem on it, however.) |
| 8 | Thursday, April 26 | Section 2.2 | |
| 9 | Monday, April 30 | Section 2.3 | |
| 10 | Thursday, May 3 | No Reading | |
| 11 | Monday, May 7 | Presentations | |
| 11.5 | Monday, May 7 | Presentations 4:00 - 5:30 | |
| 12 | Thursday, May 10 | Section 3.1, up to p.218 | |
| 13 | Monday, May 14 | Finish Section 3.1 | Skim p. 223 |
| 14 | Thursday, May 17 | Section 3.2 | |
| 15 | Monday, May 21 | Section 3.3 | |
| 16 | Thursday, May 14 | Section 3.4 | |
| 17 | Monday, May 28 | Section 3.5 | |
| 18 | Thursday, May 31 | No reading | |
| 19 | Monday, June 4 | Final Presentations | |
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