Math 457/557 SPRING 2011, Discrete Dynamical Systems, CRN 33890/33898

• Instructor: Victor Ostrik
• Office Hours for Spring 2011: MW 3pm-4pm, Deady 10B, or by appointment.
• Class meets: MWF 2pm-2:50pm, Deady 102 Deady 106.
• Book: R.L.Devaney "A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems", Westview Press, ISBN 0-201-55406-2. There are two copies of the book on reserve in Science Library
• Syllabus: in this class we will discuss (parts of) chapters 2-17.
• Useful dates:
  • Last day to drop class without W: Mon April 4.
  • Last day to drop class with W: Sun May 15.
  • Last day to add class: Wed April 6.
  • Last day to change grading option: Sun May 15.
  • Last day of classes: Fri June 3.
  • Memorial Day: May 30.
• Tentative test dates:
  • Midterm 1: 2pm-2:50pm Fri April 22, Deady 106.
  • Midterm 2: 2pm-2:50pm Fri May 20, Deady 106.
  • Final: 3:15pm-5:15pm, Mon June 6, Deady 102 Deady 106.
• Please remember that if you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what happened in that class. You can usually pick up any handouts from here .
• Grading: Homework 20%, midterm 1 25%, midterm 2 25%, final 30%.
• Graduate Students taking Math 557: According to Graduate School policies, graduate students are expected to do approximately 30% more work than undergraduates. Graduate students in this course will, in addition to the above work, complete a long-term Project. These projects will be due on the last day of class, and they should be designed in consultation with the instructor: they can involve writing a paper, doing the exercises in extra chapters of the book, designing a website, etc. An agreement between student and instructor about what the Project will be should be in place by the end of Week 4. Grades for graduate students in 557 will be: Homework 15%, Midterm1 20%, Midterm2 20%, Final exam 30%, and Project 15%.
• You can look at your current grade on the Blackboard!
• Homework Assignments to be collected on FRIDAYS from now on. Late homework will not be accepted.
• List of lectures is available here.
• Some online resources:
  Devaney's website contains several Java applets for exploring dynamical systems and fractals.
  A great site for exploring the orbit diagram for the quadratic family.
  The Mandelbrot Set Explorer.
  Julia set generator.
  Another Julia set explorer. .
  Yet another Julia set generator. .
  Website for computing orbits in Julia sets.
  Fractint is a very nice, free program which allows you to explore all kinds of fractals, including the orbit diagram for the quadratic family. There are versions for IBM PCs and Linux boxes.