would someone please give an opinion on MA 537.

I am considering taking it in the spring (the only pre-reqs are MA341 and MA405) because the subject matter sounds really interesting, but I am have basically no clue what to expect from the class.

The syllabus from last year is not much help:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~franke/MA537S2010.html

And it looks like Selgrade is teaching it this year anyways.

Any insight would be helpful (what was the homework like--it looks like it would essentially be a MAPLE course, how much time did you have to devote to it each week, did you feel prepared for the class, etc)

[Edited on December 24, 2010 at 12:19 AM. Reason : ``]

12/24/2010 12:16:50 AM

I, too, am interested in taking this during the spring.

12/24/2010 1:34:49 AM

I took it back in 2001 or 2002 with Franke, and I enjoyed it. The syllabus looks a bit different now, though; we used a different text and did not use any software like Phaser to support it, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Like you, I signed up because it sounded like fun subject matter, but it wasn't all quite what I expected. At least back then, it was a fairly theoretical course, with lots of difference equations and algebraic proofs. I assume the appeal for you is getting to play with and learn about fractals, but as you can see, that's really only the last week or two of the class.

Back then and with Franke, it was not a particularly intense course; it was one of the easiest graduate level math classes I took while at NCSU, but I would say it could be challenging for people without a strong math background who are used to thinking mathematically. Homeworks were not very long but had some tough questions on occasion; I could see the difficulty varying drastically by professor and depending on how in-depth they want to push.

12/26/2010 3:14:40 AM

shadowrunner,

thanks for the insight. the more i think about it the more i think i will skip it. i don't need it, it just sounded interesting. i might go to the first day of class to get a better idea of what to expect, though.

12/30/2010 2:13:37 PM