12-240/Linear Algebra - Why We Care

DBN: Classes: 2012-13: 12-240 / Navigation Additions to this web site no longer count towards good deed points. # Week of... Notes and Links 1 Sep 10 About This Class, Tuesday, Thursday 2 Sep 17 HW1, Tuesday, Thursday, HW1 Solutions 3 Sep 24 HW2, Tuesday, Class Photo, Thursday 4 Oct 1 HW3, Tuesday, Thursday 5 Oct 8 HW4, Tuesday, Thursday 6 Oct 15 Tuesday, Thursday 7 Oct 22 HW5, Tuesday, Term Test was on Thursday. HW5 Solutions 8 Oct 29 Why LinAlg?, HW6, Tuesday, Thursday, Nov 4 is the last day to drop this class 9 Nov 5 Tuesday, Thursday 10 Nov 12 Monday-Tuesday is UofT November break, HW7, Thursday 11 Nov 19 HW8, Tuesday,Thursday 12 Nov 26 HW9, Tuesday , Thursday 13 Dec 3 Tuesday UofT Fall Semester ends Wednesday F Dec 10 The Final Exam (time, place, style, office hours times) Register of Good Deeds Add your name / see who's in!

Linear Algebra is the Small Scale Theory of Everything

• To study the large, start with the small.

• In small scales, every space is a vector space.
  • Indeed if you walk a mile east, a mile north, a mile west and a mile south, you're back were you started, but if you fly a 1,000 miles east, a 1,000 miles north, a 1,000 miles west and a 1,000 miles south, you're not back were you started (where will you be?).

• In small scales, every function is a linear function.

	$\longrightarrow$
$z$	$\mapsto$	$z^{2}$	(code)

• The world doesn't come with coordinates.
  • Hence whenever we can we work without a basis, and when we do study bases, we study all of them.

See also The Mathematica notebook QuiltPlot.

Lecture notes scanned by marie

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