Mathematics 251: Numerical Computing

Syllabus : SPRING 2009-2010

Instructor: Dr. Dolly Fayad (df07@aub.edu.lb)
Course Lectures: Section 1 : MWF 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Nicely 211
Section 2 : MWF 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Nicely 415
Section 3 : MWF 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Nicely 320
Office Hours:
MWF : 1:00 2:00 p.m. Bliss 230
Lab Instructors: Miss Sarah Abu Diab(sa88@aub.edu.lb)
Miss Ghina El Jannoun( gie01@aub.edu.lb) Miss Sarah Khankan(stk01@aub.edu.lb)
MATLAB Tutorial and Problem Solving Sessions:
Wed : 12:00 1:00 p.m.
Th : 3:30 4:30 p.m.
Th : 5:00 6:00 p.m.

Office hours: TBA

Basic course support: Class Notes available through Moodle system (chapters to be
published at end of lectures), plus photocopies of sections from selected references.
References:
Numerical Mathematics and Computing, by Cheney and Kincaid, 6th edition, Brooks/Cole, 2004.
Objectives: This course is primarily addressed to students majoring in Computer Science,
Mathematics, Engineering, Physics and Economics. Its main purpose is the introduction of
mathematical and computational tools to handle basic numerical methods. The main tool for
algorithms development is MATLAB, version 7.
Chapter 1: Floating-point number representations:Binary, Octal, Decimal, Hexadecimal
Systems. IEEE Single and Double Precision Floating point systems. Roundings. Loss of Precision
Chapter 2: Finding roots of non-linear equations: Bisection, Newton and Secant methods.
Chapter 3: Matrix computations: systems of linear equations and Gaussian procedures. LUdecomposition of Matrices
Chapter 4: Numerical interpolation: Lagrange, Newton and Nevilles interpolating
polynomials. Linear, Quadratic and Cubic Splines. Tridiagonal Systems.
Chapter 5: Numerical differentiation and Integration. Midpoint, Trapezoidal and Richardson
extrapolation: Romberg formulae.
Chapter 6: Introduction to Numerical Integration of Ordinary Differential Equations.
Grading (over 100)
Quiz 1 : 20 %
Quiz 2 : 20 %
Final Exam : 40 %
MATLAB Projects : 15 %
Drop Quizzes + Attendance : 5 %

QUIZ 1 : Saturday 27 March :8:00 to 9:15 a.m.-Nicely 500

QUIZ 2 : Saturday 8 May
:8:00 to 9:15 p.m.-Nicely500

Schedule
Weeks

Contents
FLOATING POINT ARITHMETIC

1. 15 17 - 19 Feb
2. 22 24
Feb
3. 1 3 5 March

4. 8 10 12 March
5. 15 17 19 March

Methods of Conversion
IEEE Floating point systems
Floating point operations , Rounding errors

ROOT FINDING
Bisection, Newton and Secant methods
Matlab Assignment 1

6. 22 - 24 - 26 March
7. 29 31 March
8. 7 9 April

9. 12 - 14 16 April
10. 19 21 23 April
11. 26 28 30 April

SYSTEMS OF LINEAR EQUATIONS

Backward Substitution
Partial and Scaled Partial pivoting
LU decomposition: Determinant and Inverse of A

POLYNOMIAL and SPLINE INTERPOLATION

Lagrange, Newton and Nevilles polynomials
Linear, Quadratic and Cubic Splines
Matlab Assignment 2
NUMERICAL DIFFERENTIATION and
INTEGRATION

12. 3 5 - 7
13. 10 12 14
14. 17 19 21

May
May
May

Forward, Backward and Central difference formulae

Richardson Extrapolation
Midpoint and Trapezoidal Rules
Romberg formulae

.
ODE : RUNGE-KUTTA Methods
15.

24 - 26 - 28

MAY

Matlab Assignment 3