Has anyone taken MAST10007 Linear Algebra?

[hobbitle]

Hi guys,

My first post here.  I'm not a school leaver but I'm 26 and in first year uni so there's lots of great info here on ATAR Notes for first years!

I'm taking MAST10007 Linear Algebra this semester and whilst I think the course itself is fine, I have a crummy lecturer who is arrogant, doesn't go by the lecture notes, and overcomplexifies everything.  We are still doing matrices (determinants etc) and get taught a lot of 'proofs' and things with pretty confusing mathematical notation.  I generally find maths-related subjects pretty fine until we start getting into proof-land, so I can always get the answer to a problem, but I get very confused when getting into the intricacies of 'how it gets to be that way'.

An example at the moment is knowing how (and the notation to prove it) the elementary matrices that result from a row operation have determinants of -1, scalar constant, or 1 depending on the row operation.  I can use the theorem fine but the proof behind it was bloody brain frying for me.

So my question is - on the exam, are you ever asked for proofs, or are you just solving problems? 

I have pretty much the same question for MAST10006 Calculus 2 - if anyone can help on that front, too - will we need to prove limit laws, Continuity theorems etc?

Thanks for your help.

[Hancock]

Hey, welcome to ATARNotes!

I've taken both MAST10006 and MAST10007 and I think that I went well enough to give some insight and advice on the questions. Well you may have a crummy lecturer, the stuff he is teaching you sounds pretty much spot on. Linear Algebra is an introduction to pure mathematics, so you have to learn how to prove certain ideas and concepts. This comes from practise of proofing ideas, and thinking about whether or not (intuitively) the statement is true or not, and how to prove it.

In the exam, you do have 1 or 2 proof questions that don't guide you along. You need to be able to draw upon all the concept in the course and proof the statement.

Calculus 2 has very easy limit laws compared to Linear Algebra, but you don't need to prove continuity theorems or limit laws in MAST10006, just be able to use them to find limits of functions.

[hobbitle]

Thanks Hancock, that's really helpful.  Not necessarily what I wanted to hear, but still good to know!  It's just concerning to me when I don't understand something that is described by the lecturer as 'really easy'.  I think I have knowledge gaps as I only took Methods in high school 10 years ago, and then my first jump into maths again was with Calculus 1 this year.  Now I'm taking both Calc 2 and Linear in the same semester!

Yes the lecturer is indeed teaching us the right material, just often in a random order, and sometimes overcomplexifies his notation so much he confuses himself (which confuses the class even further, as if we weren't already!).

Thanks again

[vcestudent94]

Thanks Hancock, that's really helpful.  Not necessarily what I wanted to hear, but still good to know!  It's just concerning to me when I don't understand something that is described by the lecturer as 'really easy'.  I think I have knowledge gaps as I only took Methods in high school 10 years ago, and then my first jump into maths again was with Calculus 1 this year.  Now I'm taking both Calc 2 and Linear in the same semester!

Yes the lecturer is indeed teaching us the right material, just often in a random order, and sometimes overcomplexifies his notation so much he confuses himself (which confuses the class even further, as if we weren't already!).

Thanks again

Who are the lecturers this semester? If Craig Hodgson is teaching this semester, definitely go to his lectures. He really knows his stuff. Honestly, for the first half of the semester I was reading the textbook but then stopped towards the end of sem because his explanations were enough.

No need to worry about knowledge gaps for linear algebra, as it's all new anyway. The only assumed knowledge you need is essentially how to solve a linear equation which anyone should know-it all 'builds' on top of that basic foundation.
I did L.A. and Calc 2 in the same semester too. They don't really overlap but they compliment each other in that they provide a good mix of abstract and applied maths throughout the semester to keep things interesting.

[hobbitle]

Anyone who has taken this subject or similar... we have a strange assignment question that I don't know how to interpret.  It's unlike any other question we've done, it's basically just the notation that's thrown me, can anyone explain the notation here?

[JMoxey]

Slide 177-178 of the lecture notes would be a good start.

[hobbitle]

Slide 177-178 of the lecture notes would be a good start.

Yep, figured out what they wanted us to write down, I just didn't really understand the notation.  Cheers.