MAT 260 Linear Algebra

Welcome to the Oakton Community College MAT 260 home page. Here you will find information shared by all sections of the course. In the frame to the left there are a number of useful links including the textbook web site, if there is one, and the generic course syllabus.  Further down this frame there are links to individual instructors' resources for their specific sections.

Prerequisites
 MAT 251 with a grade of C or better.

Course Description
This course covers matrices and systems of linear equations, vector spaces, real inner product spaces, linear transformations, determinants, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, diagonability, quadratic forms and symmetric matrices. Calculators/computers are used when appropriate.  

Course Objectives

A. Use basic matrix operations and the algebra of matrices in practical problems. Possible applications may be drawn from areas such as Kirchoff's laws, Leontieff model of an interacting economy, Markov chains, method of least squares, singular value decomposition and Fourier coefficients of a function.
B. Understand the concepts of vector spaces, subspaces, basis, independence and dependence, dimension, coordinates, rank of a matrix, inner product.
C. Use the dependency relationship algorithm and the Gram-Schmidt orthogonizational process.
D. Understand linear transformations, range and null space of a linear transformation, the correspondence principle and similarity.
E. Understand properties of the determinant function and the cofactor expansion of determinants.
F. Understand the concepts of eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
G. Understand the concepts of quadratic forms.

Instructional Materials
 
Required Textbooks:
Linear Algebra and Its Applications by David C. Lay, 3rd Edition, Addison Wesley, 2003.

A computer algebra system is required.

 

Send corrections and comments to pboisver@oakton.edu.