LINEAR ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
No prerequisite is needed
During the semester, the students will find, on the e-learning page of the course, multiple choice quizzes. Such quizzes are not to be a part of the final mark, rather a way to quickly monitor the effective understanding of the notions acquired during the lectures.
The examination will take place on two levels:
1) A written examination, with a duration of 2 hours, in which students solve some problems, whose difficulty is akin to that of the assigned exercises. The goal of the written examination is to verify that the students can apply the theoretical, abstract results in order to deduce properties of vector spaces, linear maps, and geometric entities in concrete situations. Passing the written examination requires a mark of 18/30 and is necessary in order to be admitted to the oral examination. The mark of the written examination remains valid for all the subsequent rounds, within the academic year.
Students which obtain a mark of at least 16/30 will also be provisionally admitted to the oral examination. In order to formalize the admission, these students will be required, during a preliminary oral discussion, to defend the written examination.
2) A traditional oral examination, during which the performance of the written examination is discussed; moreover, students are required to explain basic notions, to illustrate the proofs of the main theorems, and to analyze concrete examples.
The final mark, to be expressed over 30 points, is determined by the outcome of the oral examination, which can confirm that of the written examination, or increment it, or cause the failure, in case the exhibited competences should not be considered as sufficient.
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the main concepts and results on the algebra of linear spaces of finite dimension over the real and complex numbers, with applications to the study of the euclidean geometry of linear entities and to the classification of quadratic entities. Because of its abstract nature, linear algebra is notoriously thought of as a tough branch of mathematics. The applications to analytic geometry, as well as the abundance of concrete examples, will lend clarity to it, allow a development of intuition and accostum students to the peculiar reasonings of this discipline. At the end of the course, the student is supposed to be able:
1) to define the main entities and to present the basic results of this branch;
2) to analyze these results on concrete examples in order to deduce the main properties of linear spaces, of linear maps among these spaces, and of the linear and geometric entities;
3) to carry out, in an autonomous way, simple reasonings in order to deduce the validity of general properties of abstract vector spaces, and of linear and quadratic entities.
The course is essentially divides into three parts, which are mutually connected.
A) Algebra of linear entities.
B) Algebra of quadratic entities.
C) Elements of Euclidean analytic geometry.
More in detail, the lecture will cover the following topics:
- Systems of linear equations
- Vector spaces and subspaces
- Generating systems, linear independence, and bases
- Operations on subspaces and Grassmann's formula
- Linear maps, kernel, and range
- Duality in finite dimensional vector spaces
- Linear maps and matrices: the representation theorem
- Base change in endomorphisms, and similar matrices
- Determinants
- Canonical form of endomorphisms
- Euclidean vector spaces and linear isometries
- Symmetric endomorphisms and diagonalizability: the real spectral theorem
- Normal endomorphisms: the complex spectral theorem
- Bilinear and quadratic forms
- Affine euclidean spaces, references and transformations in space
- Conics in the euclidean plane and a look to quadrics in euclidean space
The Linear Algebra and Geometry course is a very standard one. By following the lectures, students will be able to use any textbook. As for the scheme with which the topics will be presented, the reference textbooks are:
1) Sheldon Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right. 3rd edition. Springer (2015)
2) Carlo Petronio, Geometria e Algebra Lineare. Società Editrice Esculapio (2015)
Further material
1) Slides of the lectures
2) Assignments
The teaching modalities will strongly depend on how the Covid-19 emergency will evolve. At the moment, the most likely scenario is that of online teaching.
The teaching modality consists of:
1) theoretical lectures, (perhaps onine, using Microsoft Teams). In such lectures, the instructor will provide the students with the key notions of the course.
2) Weekly exercise assignments, to apply the theoretical content of the lecture. The esercises can be worked out induvidually, or in small groups.
3) Problem sessions (perhaps onine, using Microsoft Teams). During these sessions, the solutions of the assigned exercises will be discussed, ideally by the students, but it any case under the guidance of the instructor.
For office hours, please contact the instructors at their email addresses, giovanni.bazzoni@uninsubria.it and claudio.cacciapuoti@uninsubria.it
Professors
Borrowers
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Degree course in: Physics