Lecturer

Alexander Caspar, Ayawoa Dagbovie

Coordinator

Robert Crowell

Welcome to Mathematical Tools 1!

For the start of the course we collect some information on this site. Later on we are going to work in an Ashesi Canvas course.

There are two key elements: the self assessment test and some chapters on prerequisites. An e-mail had been sent to you to get access to those resources.

Self Assessment

Please note that this self assessment is NOT graded! We recommend that you solve it under open-book exam conditions and limit your time to 70 - 80 minutes. Note for some exercises (multiple-choice) more than one answer is correct!

Please submit your solutions by the 12th of January at noon. Please use the personal link that you got in the invitation e-mail.

This self assessment serves a two-fold goal:

• Goal no.1 is that the lecturers find out what prior knowledge the student body brings into the course.
• Goal no.2 is that you know what the prerequisites for this course are, and where you may have weaknesses (either you never learned or forgot the material).

Suggestions for answering the self assessment:

• Skim through the test to get an overview of the topics covered. Perhaps just in the pdf. Feel free to briefly recall the relevant concepts in case you need to refresh your memory. The assessment consists of 24 questions: questions 1 - 19 are on Linear Algebra, Complex Numbers and Differential Equations while questions 20 - 24 are on MATLAB Programming.
• Then sit down to work through the self assessment thoroughly. Aim to answer the assessment in 70 - 80 mins. If you come across topics that you learned in the past, but have forgotten, feel free to consult your lectures notes or other media to fresh up your knowledge and then answer the question.
• If you come across topics that you never saw before, please indicate so by clicking “I don’t know.” This is very helpful for us lecturers. You can only submit your answers if you have selected an answer for each item.

After submission you’ll be shown the solutions without explanations. We are going to discuss some of the topics at the beginning of the course in January.

Preparatory material and prerequisites

It is not expected that you work though all the preparatory material in advance! However, if you would like to fill some gaps or brush up your knowledge in specific areas or more broadly before the course starts, you are warmly invited to do so! We plan to recapitulate some basics at the beginning of the course based on the performance of the class.

MATLAB

Some experience with MATLAB or similar tools would be great, cp.

• a video tutorial The Complete MATLAB Course: Beginner to Advanced
• a cheat sheet

Linear Algebra

Main reference: [Lay] David C. Lay et al, Linear Algebra and its Applications, 5/E, Pearson Hall, 2016. Available at Ashesi library.

We build on solid knowledge in matrix algebra, systems of linear equations, eigen values/vectors as in [Lay] Chapter 1 to 3, Chapter 5.1, 5.2 and 6.1 additionally Appendix B. Some background on linear ODE of 1st and 2nd order would be great.

For the prerequisites follow these links (PW was sent to you.)

• Linear Equation in Linear Algebra
• Matrix Algebra
• Determinants
• Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors
• Euclidean Spaces
• Complex Numbers