St.

Mary’s University
Faculty of Informatics
Department of Computer Science

COURSE TITLE: Introduction to Linear Algebra

COURSE CODE: Math 2012
CREDIT HOURS: 3
PREREQUISITE: None
INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: __________________________

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will give a description about vector and vector spaces. The concepts of matrices and
determinants are also the issues of the course. Linear transformations and Eigen values & Eigen vectors
will also be discussed in consecutive chapters.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:

● define vector, vector space and matrices.
● differentiate linearly dependent and linearly independent vectors.
● define linear transformation.
● solve system of linear equations.
● find inverse of a matrix.
● compute matrix representation of a linear transformation and vice versa.
● compute the magnitude of a square matrix.
● use determinant to find inverse of matrix
● use matrices in computer programming

COURSE CONTENT:

Chapter 1: Vectors
1.1. Definition of point in n-space
1.2. Vectors in Rn
1.3. Scalar product, norm of a vector
1.4. Cross Product of vector
1.5. Lines and planes
Chapter 2: Vector Spaces
2.1. The vector space axioms
2.2. Examples of different models for vector spaces
2.3. Subspaces
2.4. Linear dependence & independence of vectors
2.5. Bases & dimension of a vector space
2.6. Sum and direct sum
1
Chapter 3: Matrices
3.1 The algebra of matrices
3.2. Different types of matrices: square, identity, triangular, symmetric and skew
symmetric matrices
3.3. Elementary row (column) operations
3.4. Inverse of a matrix using row operations
3.5. System of linear equations

Chapter 4: Determinants
4.1. Definition of Determinants
4.2. Properties of determinants
4.3. Cramer’s rule
4.4. Inverse of a matrix
4.5. The rank of a matrix
4.6. Determinants as area and volume

Chapter 5: Linear Transformations

5.1 Definition of Linear transformation
5.2 Properties of Linear transformation
5.3 The rank- nullity theorem
5.4 The Algebra of Linear transformation
5.5 Matrix representation of linear transformation

Chapter 6: Eigen values and Eigen Vectors

6.1 Eigen values and Eigenvectors
6.2 The Characteristic Polynomial
6.3 Diagonalization of Matrices

ASSESSMENT METHOD
Assessment Method Weight
Assignments 20%
Mid-Exam 30%
Final examination 50%

TEXT AND SUPPORTING MATERIALS:

 REFERENCES:

1. Howard Anton (1977), Elementary Linear Algebra, Drexel University.

2. Linear Algebra, Schaum’s outline, TATA, McGraw- hill edition, 2014.
3. Serge Lang (1966), Linear Algebra, Addison Wesley.