Overview:

This module offers students a variety of authentic engineering problems and experiences in order to promote professional values and behaviour, and...

Design and Professional Skills II (MECH0016)

Decolonizing the curriculum|Politics of Anthropology|Colonialism|History of Anthropology

Description

Module Content

While the maxim of Anthropology serving as the handmaiden to colonialism is often overstated, there is no doubt that the...

History of Science and Medicine|Mathematics

The history of mathematics is not history alone, nor is it mathematics alone, but a subject requiring sympathy for and knowledge of the techniques of both...

The history of mathematics is not history alone, nor is it mathematics alone, but a subject requiring sympathy for and knowledge of the techniques of both disciplines. The aim of the course is to provide a survey of mathematical thought from the earliest times up to the early nineteenth century, so that students may see, for example, how Archimedes obtained his famous bounds for π and how non-Euclidean geometry was discovered. While the material of the course is delivered in the lectures, with additional notes provided, students are expected to read some primary sources from the set anthology of mathematical writings as well as specific chapters from the standard histories. The basic requirement for the course is a good understanding of high school calculus, algebra and geometry but there are also one or two more challenging topics which demand a slightly higher level of mathematics. It is also advantageous to have a good command of written English.

MATHEMATICS|MATHEMATICAL METHODS|FOURIER|PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS|CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS|

The aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to four mathematical topics (a) Fourier theory, (b) the calculus of variations, and (c)...

The aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to four mathematical topics (a) Fourier theory, (b) the calculus of variations, and (c) partial differential equations and (d) vector calculus. In (a), we develop tools to decompose a periodic function as a (possibly infinite) sum of sine and cosine modes. In (b), the fundamental problem is to determine a function which either maximizes or minimizes an integral when specified end conditions are satisfied. In (c), linear and quasilinear partial differential equations of the first and second order are considered, including the well-known equations of mathematical physics - the wave equation, the diffusion equation and Laplace's equation. In (d) the divergence and curl are defined. Proofs of the divergence and Stokes' theorem are presented.