Michele Harvey COL 4.14, Professor Jan van den Heuvel COL 3.07

This course is available to students on the following programmes: BSc Actuarial Science, BSc Accounting and Finance, BSc Business Mathematics and Statistics, BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, BSc Mathematics with Economics, BSc Economics, MSc Economics (Two Year Programme), BSc Economic History with Economics, BSc Economics and Economic History, BSc Economics with Economic History, BSc Environmental Policy with Economics, BSc Geography with Economics, BSc Mathematics and Economics and BSc Philosophy and Economics. Available to General Course students and as an outside option. This course cannot be taken with MA107 Quantitative Methods (Mathematics), MA110 Basic Quantitative Methods and MA207 Further Quantitative Methods

This course assumes knowledge of the elementary techniques of mathematics including calculus, as evidenced for example by a good grade in A Level Mathematics.

This is an introductory level course for those who wish to use mathematics seriously in social science, or in any other context. A range of basic mathematical concepts and methods in calculus of one and several variables and in linear algebra are covered and some applications illustrated. It is an essential pre-requisite for any mathematically orientated economics options and for many further mathematics courses.

Topics covered: Matrices, reduced row echelon form, rank. Systems of linear equations, Gaussian elimination. Determinants. Vector spaces, linear independence, basis, dimension. Linear transformations, similarity. Eigenvalues. Diagonalization. Orthogonal diagonalization. Complex numbers. Vectors. Functions of several variables, derivatives, gradients, tangent hyperplanes. Optimisation including Lagrange's method. Vector-valued functions, derivatives and their manipulation. Inverse functions, local inverses and critical points, use in transformations. Integration, differential and difference equations. Some applications of the above topics.

The lecture course MA100 is two hours each week (one hour of linear algebra and one hour of calculus) in the MT, LT and early ST (44 lectures in all). In addition weekly classes MA100.A are given (MA100.B for BSc Mathematics and/with Economics, MA100.C for BSc Actuarial Science and MA100.D for BSc BMS only).

Students will be expected to complete exercises assigned weekly in the lectures. Written answers to specified exercises are submitted to the appropriate class teacher for evaluation. Success in this paper depends on dealing with this written work as it is assigned, in a regular and systematic manner.

Ken Binmore & Joan Davies, Calculus, Concepts and Methods; Howard Anton, Elementary Linear Algebra.

The course assessment is based exclusively on a three-hour formal examination in the ST.