Math 320: Linear Algebra and Differential Equations

Differential equations arise in many areas of science and engineering to model continuous change, in particular to model time evolution of a system.  Linear algebra is the study of linear systems of equations, linear functions, matrices and vector spaces. In math 320, we shall study these subjects together for three reasons: (1) The viewpoint of linear algebra is immensely helpful in uncovering the order underlying the topic of differential equations; it helps us understand the ``why'' and not just the ``how'' of our calculations, (2) Linear algebra is essential to the theory of differential equations, and (3) linear algebra is crucial to the computer approximations which are often the only way to solve the most challenging ordinary and partial differential equations.