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Math 15 Course Goals:

This main goal of the course is to extend the ideas of the differential calculus of a single variable to the relm of multi-variable functions. The concept of a vector will play an important role in this, and we will find it very convenient to consider out functions to be defined on vectors and returing a vector value. Along the way, we will present some key ideas from linear algebra. Although we will see several different multi-variable analogues of the single-variable derivative, the course should conclude by unifying them all into one idea: the Jacobian matrix.

Notice that the goal is not to provide the student with a set of computational techniques and procedures for solving a set of predefined problems. Rather, the emphasis is on the fundamental concepts and how they relate to each other. Computation is an important part of this process, but it is not the only one, nor is it the primary one. Students who approach this course assuming that "the answer" is the only thing that counts will find it frustrating and are not likely to do well.

The material to be covered includes: vectors and vector operations, multi-variable function, vector-valued functions, equations of lines and planes in space, partial derivatives, gradients, tangent and normal vectors, tangent planes, systems of linear equations, matrix operations, and the Jacobian matrix. See the the course outline for more details.


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Created: Aug 31 1998 --- Last modified: Sep 1, 1998 9:16:59 AM