Differential Equations

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>My school has two versions of the differential Eq. course.
One is 4 credit, and the other is 3.</p>

<p>"MATH 250 Ordinary Differential Equations (3) First- and second-order equations; special functions; Laplace transform solutions; higher order equations. Students who have passed MATH 251 may not schedule this course for credit."</p>

<p>"MATH 251 Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations (4) First- and second-order equations; special functions; Laplace transform solutions; higher order equations; Fourier series; partial differential equations."</p>

<p>the ME, Aero E, Nuc E and Chem E (and maybe BME) are supposed to take the 4 credit version.</p>

<p>the IE, Agri E, Mat E, EE/Comp E/CS have to take the 3 credit version.</p>

<p>How is it in other colleges?</p>

2

<p>Looks like 251 is a bit more intense. I would assume if you don't have a problem with mathematics that 251 is the way to go.</p>

3

<p>My school only offered ordinary and partial diffEq. Everybody took it regardless of major.</p>

4

<p>Berkeley has just Math 54:</p>

<p>"Linear Algebra & Differential Equations -- [4 units]</p>

<p>Course Format: Three hours of lecture and two hours of discussion/workshop per week; at the discretion of the instructor, an additional hour of discussion/workshop or computer laboratory per week.</p>

<p>Prerequisites: 1A-1B or equivalent. Note: calculus courses at most institutions either have no differential equations, or less than Berkeley's Math 1B. Transfer students who have taken such a course need to learn that differential equations material (Stewart, Calculus: Early Transcendentals, 5th Ed., Ch.s 9 and 17) on their own, by approximately the 10th week of Math 54. The instructor and TA's should emphasize this fact.</p>

<p>Description: Basic linear algebra; matrix arithmetic and determinants. Vector spaces; inner product spaces. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors; linear transformations. Homogeneous ordinary differential equations; first-order differential equations with constant coefficients. Fourier series and partial differential equations. (F,SP)"</p>

5

<p>Linear Algebra is offered as a separate course in my school.
and its called "Matrices"...</p>

<p>"MATH 220 Matrices (2) Systems of linear equations; matrix algebra; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; linear systems of differential equations."</p>

6

<p>fourier series and ODE and PDE all in the SAME COURSE?!! Wow....
I took regular Diffeq/calc 4, then took fourier, then took ODE, then took PDE, 4 separate courses with earlier ones being pre-reqs......
and another separate course for linear algebra</p>

7

<p>Usually you take the combined fourier, pde, advanced ode course after you take the into ODE course.</p>

8

<p>At my school, some engineers took one DE course that includes ODEs and PDEs. There is less detail since they can only fit so much in one course. The others who use DEs more often (this is true for ECEs at my school), they take one ODE course and one PDE course.</p>

9

<p>Aha,PDE is much harder than ODE.
You need at least 1-2 semeters PDE courses to get a idea of it.</p>