Applied Linear Algebra, M346, Summer 2011, Unique #92560

  • Professor: Lorenzo Sadun
  • Classes: MTWThF, 8:30-10, RLM 5.116
  • Website: http://www.ma.utexas.edu/~sadun/Sum11/346
  • Office: RLM 9.114
  • Office Hours: MTWThF 10-11
  • Phone: 471-7121
  • Email: sadun@math.utexas.edu
  • Text: Applied Linear Algebra; the Decoupling Principle, 2nd edition by yours truly.  We will attempt to cover the first 7 chapters and part of the 8th, with occasional sections skipped.  Do not attempt to use the first edition of the book, which is filled with printing errors. Also, the second edition has a lot of new content and is priced at half the first edition, thanks to a change in publishers.
  • Prerequisites: M340L or M341 or M311 or my permission.  I expect you to have a good feel for manipulating matrices, especially row reduction, at the level of Appendix A. I also expect you to have seen abstract vector spaces and linear transformations, but some rustiness is expected -- we'll be reviewing that.  I don't assume that you've seen eigenvalues and eigenvectors at all; we'll do them from scratch.


    • Grades are in! Averages are posted on blackboard. The cutoffs were:
    > 92 = A
    89-92 = A-
    85-88 = B+
    78-85 = B
    73-77 = B-
    68-71 = C+
    62-67 = C
    58-61 = C-
    50-57 = D
    < 50 = F
    There were 8 A's, 2 A-'s, 1 B+, 4 B's, 3 B-'s, 1 C+, 1 C, 1 C-, and 4 D's among the 25 people who took the final.

    *Handouts and Other Course Information

  • First Day Handout
  • Course Schedule
  • Homework

    • Here are several practice exams, and I'll post our actual exams after the fact. In studying for tests, I strongly recommend that you work each old exam without looking at the solutions, and then look at the solutions when you're done.

  • First midterm from 2003, both with and without solutions
  • First midterm from 2004, both with and without solutions
  • First midterm from 2005, both with and without solutions
  • First midterm from Spring 2009, both with and without solutions
  • First midterm from Fall 2009, both with and without solutions
  • First midterm from Spring 2011, both with and without solutions
  • Actual first midterm from Summer 2011, both with and without solutions


  • Second midterm from 2003, both with and without solutions
  • Second midterm from 2004, both with and without solutions
  • Second midterm from Spring 2009, both with and without solutions
  • Second midterm from Fall 2009, both with and without solutions
  • Second midterm from Spring 2011, both with and without solutions
  • Actual second midterm from Summer 2011, both with and without solutions


  • Third midterm from Spring 2009, both with and without solutions. (Warning, the solution to problem 1 contains an error, with the second row of the matrix computed wrong.)
  • Third midterm from Fall 2009, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final from 2000, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final from 2003, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final from 2004, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final from 2005, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final from Spring 2009, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final exam from Fall 2009, both with and without solutions
  • Practice final exam from Spring 2011, both with and without solutions
  • Actual final exam from Summer 2011, both with and without solutions