Category Archives: Liberal Arts & Sciences – Electives
All Liberal Arts Elective Courses: Quantitative Reasoning, Physical Science OR Life Science, Societies & the Social Sciences, Expressive Culture, General Liberal Arts Electives
As a part of a two-year curriculum, prepares the student for a high level of proficiency in Hindi. Through a variety of class, small-group, and paired activities, as well as language and computer lab sessions, students are expected to develop reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills. The instructor also takes into consideration individual needs.
Continues where Elementary Urdu leaves off. The students are introduced to literary texts. Along with specific language tasks, criticism and analysis now form part of the curriculum. Dictation, memorizing poetry, comprehension, and engaging in longer sessions of conversation form an important part of this course. By the end of this course, students should have achieved some fluency in reading literary texts, writing short essays, and carrying on a conversation.
Builds on the skills acquired in Elementary Arabic I and II, with increased emphasis on writing and reading from modern sources, in addition to aural/oral proficiency.
Surveys main political, social, economic, and intellectual currents of the 20th century. Emphasis on historical background and development of current problems in the region. Topics include imperialism, nationalism, religion, Orientalism, women, class formation, oil, the Arab-Israeli crisis, and the Iranian revolution.
Offerings (which may vary) focus on one or more Middle Eastern literary traditions and/or cultural traditions and/or genres of writing, using a thematic or theoretical approach.
Addresses the rich literary product of modern and contemporary South Asia. Offers more advanced undergraduates a window on a rich and culturally varied area of the world, as well as an understanding of aspects of South Asian history and society as represented in translations of modern prose writing (short stories and novels) originally written in South Asian languages.
Brief review of multivariate calculus: partial derivatives, chain rule, Riemann integral, change of variables, line integrals. Lagrange multipliers. Inverse and implicit function theorems and their applications. Introduction to calculus on manifolds: definition and examples of manifolds, tangent vectors and vector fields, differential forms, exterior derivative, line integrals and integration of forms. Gauss’ and Stokes’ theorems on manifolds.
Formulation and analysis of mathematical models. Mathematical tools include dimensional analysis, optimization, simulation, probability, and elementary differential equations. Applications to biology, economics, other areas of science. The necessary mathematical and scientific background is developed as needed. Students participate in formulating models as well as in analyzing them.
Many laws of physics are formulated as partial differential equations. This course discusses the simplest examples of such laws as embodied in the wave equation, the diffusion equation, and Laplace?s equation. Nonlinear conservation laws and the theory of shock waves. Applications to physics, chemistry, biology, and population dynamics. Prerequisite: prerequisite for MATH-UA 263
This honors section of Linear Algebra is a proof-based course intended for well-prepared students who have already developed some mathematical maturity and ease with abstraction. Its scope will include the usual Linear Algebra (MATH-UA 140) syllabus; however this class will be faster, more abstract and proof-based, covering additional topics. Topics covered are: Vector spaces, linear dependence, basis and dimension, matrices, determinants, solving linear equations, linear transformations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization, inner products, applications.
The scope of this honors class will include the usual MATH-UA 123 syllabus; however this class will move faster, covering additional topics and going deeper. Functions of several variables. Vectors in the plane and space. Partial derivatives with applications, especially Lagrange multipliers. Double and triple integrals. Spherical and cylindrical coordinates. Surface and line integrals. Divergence, gradient, and curl. Theorem of Gauss and Stokes.
Prerequisites: a grade of C or better in Honors Analysis I (MATH-UA 328), or a grade of A in Analysis (MATH-UA 325) and permission of instructor. Continuation of Honors Analysis I (MATH-UA 328). Topics include: metric spaces, differentiation of functions of several real variables, the implicit and inverse function theorems, Riemann integral on R^n, Lebesgue measure on R^n, the Lebesgue integral.
Prerequisites: a grade of C or better in Honors Algebra I (MATH-UA 348), or a grade of A in Algebra (MATH-UA 343) and permission of instructor. Principal ideal domains, polynomial rings in several variables, unique factorization domains. Fields, finite extensions, constructions with ruler and compass, Galois theory, solvability by radicals.
Prerequisite: A grade of C or higher in Calculus III (MATH-UA 123) or Math for Economics III (MATH-UA 213) (for economics majors). Recommended: Mathematical Physics (PHYS-UA 106). Fluid dynamics is the branch of physics that can describe the flow of blood in the human body, the flight of an insect, or the motions of weather systems. Key concepts include: the formalism of continuum mechanics; the conservation of mass, energy, and momentum in a fluid; the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations; and viscosity and vorticity. These concepts are applied to such classic problems in fluid dynamics as potential flow around a cylinder, the propagation of sound and gravity waves, and the onset of instability in shear flow.