Math 171
Spring 2003

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to real analysis. Topics include metric spaces, compactness, completeness, continuity and convergence. There will be an emphasis on rigor and learning to write proofs.

Instructor

Name Office E-mail Phone Office Hours
Diane Maclagan 380-382K maclagan@math.stanford.edu 723-7824 TTh 10:45-12:00
F 11:00-12:00

Course Assistant

Name Office E-mail Office Hours
Paul-Olivier Dehaye 380-381D pdehaye@math.stanford.edu M 11:00-2:00,
W 11:00-2:00

Course Time and Location

TTh 1:15-2:30 380-380Y

Text

Elementary Classical Analysis, by Marsden and Hoffman. We will cover chapters 1-5 of this book, at an approximately even pace (ie about two weeks per chapter). An approximate syllabus is available here.

Exams

Midterm: There will be a take-home midterm due in class on Tuesday, May 6 . It will be handed out at the previous class meeting. If you have any conflicts with that date, you must discuss the problem with me at least a week beforehand.
Solutions are available here in Postscript or PDF formats.

Final Exam: Monday, June 9, 7-10pm. Location 380-380Y.

Last year's final is available here in Postscript or PDF.

If you will require any special accommodations for the exam please discuss them with me at least a week before the final.

Homework

There will be weekly homework assignments. Homework assignments, due dates, and solutions will be posted here. You are encouraged to work together on the exercises. Any graded assignment, though, should represent your own work. No late homework will be accepted under any circumstances. However, your lowest homework score will be dropped when computing your grade. You can hand in an improved version of any homework later in the quarter; this will not replace your previous homework grade, but will be taken into account for borderline grades.

This course satisfies the Writing in the Major requirement. Part of your grade for each homework assignment will be on your exposition of the problems. There will also be a major writing assignment. The assignment is available here in Postscript and PDF.
There are several stages of revision required for this assignment, including peer review. The first draft must be completed by Tuesday, May 13 The week proceeding this date you will be matched up with another student in the class, and will exchange the first drafts for comments. Comments must be returned to the author by Thursday, May 15, and the corrected second draft is due to me by Tuesday, May 20. After you receive comments on this manuscript, the corrected final version will be due on Tuesday, June 3 . Both times all prior versions (including the peer reviewed version) must be handed in with your current manuscript. You should use the peer review feedback form available here in Postscript or PDF.

You are strongly encouraged to type your assignment. If you wish to learn LaTeX to do this, there are many online guides to do this. Two examples are available here and here. The best reference book is the Latex book by Leslie Lamport (this should be in the bookstore). Latex was written by Lamport on top of the TEX system which was written by Don Knuth (in the CS department here at Stanford). The best way to learn Latex, though, is to modify an old file. To help you start, here is the source file for the midterm. A very brief guide to turning this file into a Postscript/PDF file is available in Postscript or PDF. The Latex source for that file is available here.

Grades

Grades will be based on the following percentages.
Homework: 25%
Writing Assignment: 10%
Midterm: 20%
Final: 45%