MATH2040B - Linear Algebra II - 2025/26

Course Name: 
Linear Algebra II
Teacher: 
Prof. Ziquan YANG
Course Year: 
2025/26
Term: 
1

Announcement

  • There is no class on Sept. 1st. I will make up for these classes at the end of the semester. There is also no tutorial the first week.
  • Homework needs to be submitted in pdf form via blackboard. They are due every Friday at midnight unless otherwise specified.
  • Late homework will not be accepted, but two lowest grades will be dropped.
  • In this course, we adopt "Approach 1 – Prohibit all use of AI tools" regarding the use of AI tools. For details, please refer to the university guidelines. [Download file]
  • Final exam time and venue (for both sections): 09:30 - 11:30am at Thomas H C Cheung Gymnasium, UC

General Information

Lecturer

  • Prof. Yang, Ziquan
    • Office: IMS 410
    • Tel: 33717
    • Email:

Teaching Assistant

  • Chen, Xiaohui (Session B)
    • Email:
  • Fan, Pu (Session A)
    • Email:
  • Tan, Xiaoyuan (Session A and B)
    • Email:

Course Description

This course is a continuation of Linear Algebra I (MATH 1030). It is a second course on linear algebra and will cover basic concepts of abstract vector spaces, linear transformations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalizability, operators on inner product spaces, orthogonality and Gram-Schmidt process, adjoint, normal and self-adjoint operators, spectral theorems, and if time permits, quadratic forms and Jordan canonical forms. More emphasis will be put on the theoretical understanding of basic concepts in linear algebra.

Time and location

MATH2040A Monday 13:30–14:15 (Mong Man Wai Bldg, Room 710) Thursday 16:30–18:15 (Mong Man Wai Bldg, Room 710)

MATH2040B Monday 16:30–17:15 (Lady Shaw Bldg, LT3) Thursday 10:30–12:15 (William M.W. Mong Eng Bldg, Room 803)


Textbooks

  • Friedberg, Insel and Spence, Linear algebra, 4th edition, Pearson.

References

  • Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, 3rd edition, Springer

Lecture Notes


Assignments

  • (Due Sept. 12th) Textbook Section 1.2: 12, 13, Section 1.3: 10, 12, 13
  • (Due Sept. 19th) Textbook Section 1.3: 23, Section 1.5: 19, Section 1.6: 15, 24, 29
  • (Due Sept. 26th) Textbook Section 2.1: 5, 13, 18, 25(c), 35
  • (Due Oct. 3rd) Textbook Section 2.2: 2, 5, 13 Section 2.3: 16 Section 2.4: 16
  • (Due Oct. 10th) Textbook Section 2.5: 7, 13 Section 5.1: 3(b), 17, 20
  • (Due Oct. 25th) Textbook Section 5.1: 21, 22(a) Section 5.2: 3(d), 7, 12
  • (Due Nov. 1st) Textbook Section 5.4: 13, 16, 18, 20, 23
  • (Due Nov. 10th) Textbook Section 6.1: 8, 18, 19, 23, 29
  • (Due Nov. 17th) Textbook Section 6.2: 2(i), 6, 10, 13, 14
  • (Due Nov. 24th) Textbook Section 6.2: 18, 22 Section 6.3: 2, 3, 6

Assessment Scheme

Homework (due every Friday at midnight, unless otherwise specified) 10%
Midterm (Oct. 16th, in class) 40%
Final (09:30 - 11:30am at Thomas H C Cheung Gymnasium, UC) 50%

Honesty in Academic Work

The Chinese University of Hong Kong places very high importance on honesty in academic work submitted by students, and adopts a policy of zero tolerance on cheating and plagiarism. Any related offence will lead to disciplinary action including termination of studies at the University. Although cases of cheating or plagiarism are rare at the University, everyone should make himself / herself familiar with the content of the following website:

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/

and thereby help avoid any practice that would not be acceptable.

Assessment Policy

Last updated: November 16, 2025 22:54:37