Syllabus

Amazon logo Help support MIT OpenCourseWare by shopping at Amazon.com! MIT OpenCourseWare offers direct links to Amazon.com to purchase the books cited in this course. Click on the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book from Amazon.com, and MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of all purchases you make. Your support will enable MIT to continue offering open access to MIT courses.

This page includes the course calendar.

Prerequisite

Analysis I (18.100B)

Textbooks

Required Textbook

Amazon logo Strauss, Walter A. Partial Differential Equations: An Introduction. New York, NY: Wiley, March 3, 1992. ISBN: 9780471548683.

Optional Textbook

Amazon logo John, Fritz. Partial Differential Equations (Applied Mathematical Sciences). 4th ed. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, March 1, 1982. ISBN: 9780387906096.

Assignments and Exams

There are eleven problem sets, two midterm exams, and a final exam. There is a problem set handed out every week, and due in class on the session of the following week.

Grading Policy

The grade will be based on:


ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Weekly homework 25%
Two mid-term exams (20% each) 40%
Final exam 35%

Calendar


LEC # TOPICS HANDOUTS
1 Introduction and basic facts about PDE's
2

First-order linear PDE's

PDE's from physics

3 Initial and boundary values problems
4

Types of PDE's

Distributions

5 Distributions (cont.) Problem set 1 due
6 The wave equation
7 The heat/diffusion equation Problem set 2 due
8

The heat/diffusion equation (cont.)

Review

Problem set 3 due
First mid-term
9 Fourier transform
10 Solution of the heat and wave equations in Rn via the Fourier transform Problem set 4 due
11 The inversion formula for the Fourier transform, tempered distributions, convolutions, solutions of PDE's by Fourier transform
12 Tempered distributions, convolutions, solutions of PDE's by Fourier transform (cont.) Problem set 5 due
13 Heat and wave Equations in half space and in intervals
14 Inhomogeneous PDE's Problem set 6 due
15 Inhomogeneous PDE's (cont.)
16 Spectral methods - separation of variables Problem set 7 due
17 Spectral methods - separation of variables (cont.) Problem set 8 due
Second mid-term
18 (Generalized) Fourier series Problem set 9 due
19 (Generalized) Fourier series (cont.)
20 Convergence of Fourier series and L2 theory
21 Inhomogeneous problems Problem set 10 due
22 Laplace's equation and special domains
23 Poisson formula Problem set 11 due
Final exam