Math 457/557 SPRING 2012, Discrete Dynamical Systems, CRN 34166/34174

• Instructor: Victor Ostrik
• Office Hours for Spring 2011: MWF 1pm-2pm, Deady 10B, or by appointment.
• Class meets: MWF 12-12:50pm, Deady 102.
• Book: R.L.Devaney "A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems", Westview Press, ISBN 0-201-55406-2.
• Syllabus: in this class we will discuss (parts of) chapters 2-17.
• Useful dates:
  • Last day to drop class without W: Mon April 9.
  • Last day to drop class with W: Sun May 20.
  • Last day to add class: Wed April 11.
  • Last day to change grading option: Sun May 20.
  • Last day of classes: Fri June 8.
  • Memorial Day holiday: Mon May 28.
• Tentative test dates:
  • Midterm 1: 12-12:50pm Fri April 27, Deady 102.
  • Midterm 2: 12-12:50pm Fri May 25, Deady 102.
  • Final: 10:15am-12:15pm Th June 14, Deady 102.
• 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 WEDNESDAYS 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.