Class to go over Homework Solutions

By popular demand, I will be holding a class to go over the solution sets for the two assignments, or at least as much of it as I can fit in 2 hours. This will take place on Monday of Week 0 (April 20th) from 3-5pm in DHSR3 in Dartington House.

See you there!

Solution Set 2 posted

I have posted the solutions to the second problem sheet.

The TA has informed me that only 3 students submitted solutions. This is very disappointing. He also told me that many people haven't even bothered to pick up their marked solutions to the first sheet. That is also rather disappointing.

Thus far, only three people have expressed any interest in a problem session. Hopefully, interest in such a class will prove a little bit wider than that. You can e-mail me or post a comment here to let me know if you are interested in attending such a class.

Solution Set 1 posted

I have posted the solutions to the first exercise sheet.

Note: Thomas Woolley (the TA) has mention that when asked to show things with delta functions that many people used the 'definition' of it being infinite at one point and 0 elsewhere. The whole point of doing distributions is that that is not good enough, so consider yourself warned that doing something like that for exam solutions is not going to result in a lot of points. As we have discussed in lectures, the definition of things like delta functions is based on distributions, and I will expect your answers to reflect that.

Problem sheet due dates

Problem sheet 1 will be due Wednesday of week 6 at the crack of noon. There will be a box in the usual spot in the Mathematical Institute. The sheets will be marked and returned no later than Monday of week 7. (They will be in the same box where you put them.)

Problem sheet 2 will be due Monday of week 8 at noon. The sheets will be marked and returned no later than Thursday of week 8.

Extra class to discuss problem sheet 2

There will be an extra class to spend some time going through the second problem sheet. It will start promptly at 3pm in DHSR2 on Monday 4/14.

I hope to see you there. (You will gain more out of this if you work on the problems before then.)

Nobody submitted a write-up for problem sheet 2?

I checked the box for this lecture course, and it looks like nobody submitted a write-up for the second set of practice problems. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll go and mark the problems. Sigh...

Anyway, we'll still go over these problems in week 0. (Let me know about good times...) But please be aware that you'll get a lot more out of it if you try the problems between now and then.

Solution Set 2 posted

I have posted solution set 2. I tried to add explanations for various notational items and remove as many typos as I could, but if there are any issues remaining, please bring them to my attention ASAP (and, in particular, {\it before} the week 0 review class for this sheet) so that I can update the document appropriately. You can either post these here or send them to me by e-mail.

I will pick up the submitted problem sheets tomorrow and will mark them in the next couple of days. I'll let you know when they are available.

Supplementary class on Monday Feb 25 (week 7), 4pm

There is a supplementary class scheduled for Monday of week 7 (Feb 25th) starting at 4pm in DHSR2 (seminar room 2 in Dartington House; it's labeled as room 18 --- it's right across from my office). I'll spend a little bit of time going through the big picture on distributions and then we'll go through some of the problems on sheet 1. (Note that we probably will not have time to go through all of them.)

Solution Sheet 1 posted

The solution sheet for the first problem sheet has been posted. Only 4 people submitted their work on this sheet. That's not a particularly optimal way to get potentially very useful feedback.

I am still awaiting more feedback for when to have the extra class to go over the big picture a bit and also to spend some time on the first homework sheet (though we won't have time to go over everything). Four people have expressed opinions about that. I will wait a little bit more time for others to indicate when they're available, and then I will figure out a day and time from this input.

Supplementary class for distributions

I have received an e-mail requesting an extra lecture to review some of the big picture from the unit on distributions.

That sounds like a good idea to me, though the format will be slightly different. I can spend a little bit of time reviewing distributions (beyond the 15 minutes from today's lecture) and then I would also like to spend some time going through the first problem sheet. We can't have this until after the first sheet gets marked, but I'm certainly happy to do this.

I need you to tell me when you are available and then I'll need to get a room. Please provide comments about time constraints in the comments in this spot, and I'll use that to help figure out a time that hopefully everybody can make.

Problem Sheet 2 available

Problem sheet 2 (due Friday of week 8 at 4pm) is now available.

Note that there is a box in the basement of the Mathematical Institute where you should turn in problem sheet 1 (due Friday of week 4 at 4pm).

Solutions will eventually be posted for problem sheet 4, and I'd also like to have a class to discuss these problems. I have the MSc lecture schedule, so I will try to schedule something around that. Hopefully we can find a time that everybody can make. Tentatively, I'd like to do this during week 6. (Note that the class for the second problem sheet will need to be early in Trinity term.)

Note that the 6th problem in problem sheet 2 is quite long. It is meant to guide you to the original analytical derivation of solitons and various things (including insights into shock phenomena) that occurred along the way. It will also be extremely illuminating conceptually, so I hope you'll take the time to go through it to a decent extent. Anyway, while doing it fully will take some time, it's something that will be educational and I am certainly open towards turning that into one of the proverbial class project things you're supposed to be doing.

Problem Sheet 1 available

Problem Sheet 1 is now available. It is due by 4pm on Friday of 4th week. Please submit it to a box that will be set up by the TA.