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Handbook 1997 : Faculty of Science : Mathematics
Mathematics is the oldest of the exact sciences, and among the oldest of all intellectual disciplines. It has long been valued as the training ground for systematic, logical and analytical thought and it contains ideas as profound and beautiful as may be encountered anywhere. A knowledge of mathematics is invaluable for professional life in the pure and applied sciences, as well as in commerce, industry and technology, and an understanding of mathematics is invaluable in making sense of a rapidly changing and increasingly technologically complex world.
The Department of Mathematics offers a variety of subjects at first, second and third year levels which are designed to prepare students for professional careers in mathematics or to help with studies in other disciplines, and to provide training in logical reasoning and to cultivate analytical skills.
The selection of first-year subjects in Mathematics, and in the allied disciplines of Mathematical Sciences, Statistics and Computer Science, is discussed in detail under the preceding Mathematical Sciences entry, to which the reader's attention is directed. The guidelines for selecting initial Mathematics subjects may be briefly summarised as follows.
Students with VCE Mathematical Methods 3/4 but not VCE Specialist Mathematics 3/4 normally select 618-161 in their first semester. Alternatively, they may enrol in 618-141, but they should seek advice from the Mathematics Department's Director of First-year Studies before doing this.
Students with VCE Specialist Mathematics 3/4 are not permitted to enrol in 618-161. They are recommended to enrol in 618-121 or 618-141 in their first semester; 618-121 requires a high level of achievement in Specialist Mathematics 3/4. The Director of First-year Studies will advise as to which of the two subjects should be selected.
Students who have gained accelerated entry (e.g. via MUPHAS, the Melbourne University Programme for High-achieving Students), or who have been invited to enter any of the advanced level subjects 618-111, 618-112, 618-132, 618-191 or 618-211, should discuss their subject selection with the Mathematics Department's Director of First-year Studies.
Typical course plans for students wishing to take Mathematics beyond 100-level are given below. To read the course plan first select the area of interest (e.g., Operations Research, Statistics or Commerce). For each area, several course plans are given, with the one with the highest entry requirement listed first. In each course plan, a column corresponds to a semester. Subjects where noted are considered useful but not essential, while all other subjects shown are strongly recommended and may be regarded as core subjects.
NOTES
Additional Mathematics subjects beyond those listed are available at all years.
All of the sample courses are suitable for prospective school mathematics teachers.
Students with excellent results, or with interests not served by the standard subject selections, may consider taking one or both of the Mathematics Topics subjects 618-391, 618-392. Enrolment in these subjects, the content of which varies from year to year, requires the permission of the Head of the Mathematics Department.
Students who have successfully completed the advanced subjects 618-111 and 618-112, or are permitted to enrol in the advanced subject 618-211, and other high-achieving students may be invited to enrol in one or both of 618-291 Mathematics Project A (Advanced) and 618-292 Mathematics Project B (Advanced).
In most cases, the last digit of a Mathematics subject code corresponds to the semester in which the subject is offered. The exceptions are 618-130, 618-142, 618-200, 618-231, which are available in both semesters, and the second semester subject 618-150 Number, Shape and Choice.
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Coordinator: Dr F R Barrington (Director of First-year Studies)
To determine which 100-level Mathematical Sciences subjects a student should take, refer to the section entitled Selection of 100-level subjects under 617 Mathematical Sciences. Whilst referring to this section students should also take careful note of the credit exclusions listed.
Coordinator: Dr O Foda (Year Coordinator)
The 200-level subjects offered by the Department of Mathematics are listed below in Mathematics 200-Level Subjects. Note, however, that this table also includes 618-130, which is repeated from the previous semester.
Students may take any combination of subjects if the prerequisites and conditions prescribed are satisfied. Some recommended selections of 200-level subjects have been given in the sample course plans given previously, and in the section Mathematical Sciences under the headings 'Operations Research' and 'Mathematical Sciences and Economics'.
Mathematics 200-Level Subjects
The subjects shown in the preceding table and detailed below may be classified as follows.
Analysis and Algebra Mathematics 618-201, 618-202, 618-252.
Methods and Applications Mathematics 618-231 and 618-232. These subjects are designed for students who have taken 618-121 (or 111), 618-122 (or 112) and 618-130 or (618-132). However, students who have taken 618-141, 618-142 and 618-130 will be permitted to enrol concurrently in 618-200 and 618-231.
Operations Research Mathematics 618-261 and 618-262; 618-261 is a prerequisite for the 300-level subjects 618-361 and 618-362.
Chemical Physics Mathematics 618-282. This subject supports an interdisciplinary programming spanning Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics.
Projects Mathematics 618-291 and 618-292.
NOTES:
Enrolment in any subject without the stated prerequisites must be approved by the Head of Department or a delegated authority. Students must pass 618-130 or 618-132 before taking 618-232.
The subjects 618-291 and 618-292 are designated as Advanced and are especially suited to prospective Honours students. These subjects have as prerequisites Advanced 100-level subjects and/or the permission of the Head of Department.
The subject 618-211 is an advanced subject permitting direct entry to second year for exceptionally well-qualified incoming students.
Students are advised that they may not gain credit for current 200-level Mathematics (618) subjects and some 200-level Mathematical Sciences (617) subjects offered in 1994 and 1995: 618-261 excludes credit for 617-261, while 618-262 excludes credit for 617-262. For subjects taken before 1994, the 200-level Year Coordinator should be consulted.
Coordinator: Assoc Prof W D Neumann (Year Coordinator)
The 300-level subjects offered by the Department of Mathematics are listed below in Mathematics 300-Level Subjects. Students intending to proceed to the Honours degree in Mathematics should make sure that all 400-level prerequisites are satisfied; Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Information Systems (Honours)
Mathematics 300-Level Subjects
Semester 1 618-301 Metric Spaces 15.0 618-321 Algebra 15.0 618-331 Applied Mathematics A 15.0 618-341 Dynamical Systems and Chaos 15.0 618-351 Number Theory 15.0 618-361 Operations Research Techniques and Algorithms 15.0 618-381 Computational Mathematics 15.0 618-391 Mathematics Topics A 15.0 Semester 2 618-302 Linear Analysis 15.0 618-322 Topology 15.0 618-332 Applied Mathematics B 15.0 618-342 Industrial and Applied Mathematics 15.0 618-352 Graph Theory 15.0 618-362 Applied Operations Research 15.0 618-392 Mathematics Topics B 15.0
Students may take any combination provided that prerequisites and conditions are satisfied. Suggested combinations are listed above under the heading Sample Mathematics selections for the BSc degree. The subjects shown in the preceding table and detailed below may be classified as follows.
Analysis, Algebra and Topology: Mathematics 618-301, 618-302, 618-321 and 618-322.
Methods and Applications: Mathematics 618-331, 618-332, 618-341 and 618-342. These subjects give the necessary background for students who wish to study fourth-year subjects in the areas of Applications of Mathematics, as part of an Honours degree.
Operations Research: Mathematics 618-361 and 618-362. These subjects offer an introduction to the application of mathematics to problems arising in industry and commerce. For complementary subjects in this area, refer to the Operations Research listing under 617 Mathematical Sciences.
Additional Subjects: 618-351 Number Theory, 618-352 Graph Theory, and 618-381 Computational Mathematics, 618-391 Mathematics Topics A, 618-392 Mathematics Topics B.
These subjects are supplementary to the subjects above and are designed to broaden the scope of studies in mathematical sciences.
NOTES:
Students proposing to take Honours degrees should take careful note of the requirements for entry into the various Honours schools as set out in this Prospectus and Handbook. In particular, students wishing to take fourth-year Mathematics Honours should make sure that all prerequisites for prospective 400-level subjects are satisfied. Honours entry is possible from an appropriate selection of four of the subjects 618-301, 618-302, 618-321, 618-322, 618-331, 618-332, 618-341, 618-342, 618-361 and 618-362. For a wider choice of fourth-year options, additional Mathematics subjects may be included.
Enrolment in any subject without stated prerequisites must be approved by Course Advisers.
Students are advised that they may not gain credit for current 300-level subjects and some 300-level Mathematical Sciences (617), Mathematics (618) and Education (486) subjects offered in previous years. In particular, students who have completed 486-387 (1992 or earlier) cannot gain credit for 618-352; 617-361 (1994, 1995) precludes credit for 618-361; 618-360 (1996) precludes credit for 618-362 (1997); 618-312 (1996 or earlier) precludes credit for 618-351. For subjects taken before 1992, the 300-level Year Coordinator should be consulted.
Students interested in careers in the applications of mathematics in science, technology or commerce are strongly encouraged to include at least one of the subjects 618-381 or 618-261 (if not taken in second year) before completing their science degree.
Please refer to Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Information Systems (Honours) for details on the Mathematics (Honours) and Combined Mathematics (Honours) programmes.
618-171 Mathematics 1P 618-172 Mathematics 1Q 618-181 Mathematics 1R 618-182 Mathematics 1S
1. Subject is considered useful, but not essential. Unmarked subjects are strongly recommended and may be regarded as core subjects.
2. Subject is considered useful, but not essential. Unmarked subjects are strongly recommended and may be regarded as core subjects.
3. Subject is considered useful, but not essential. Unmarked subjects are strongly recommended and may be regarded as core subjects.
4. Subject is considered useful, but not essential. Unmarked subjects are strongly recommended and may be regarded as core subjects.
5. Repeat.
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Handbook 1997 : Faculty of Science : Mathematics
Status: OFFICIAL 1997 Last Modified: Wednesday March 12 3:36 pm SGML to HTML Conversion: Information Technology Services Authorised by: Academic Registrar Email Enquiries: Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au
Copyright © University of Melbourne 1997.