For the most part - the original notes and problems by Prof. S.H. Davis of Rice University are in white, while my additions, notes, and changes to the assignments are in red.
All of the written material for this couse is stored in files on Owlnet (the Rice University computer network). You will need to use Netscape or another browser to read and print this material. You will find numerous links in these notes to material that should answer many questions about how to complete the work in this course. You are advised to follow these links if you have questions about the assignments. It should take only a minute to click on a link, see if the material there answers your question and then click on the "Back" button. If you do not fully understand the material you find with the links you are encouraged to then ask the course instructor for additional help. Note that if you print out this assignment, you will not see the links and thus will be limited in the help that you can get for yourself.
Learn about some of the basic Unix commands. Start with the brief Basic Unix Information written for these notes. Then see Table 1. Use the links in the table to get more information about commands you are not familiar with and then try each command to make sure you understand it. Of course the details of these will be different here at UB than at Rice, but the basics should be the same. See the engineering node services 'Getting Started' page and links that you will find there for information applicable to engineering node computers at UB. For general unix information at UB, see the CIT documentation pages.
Learn how to use the X-Windowing System. Read about Windows and Icons and particularly about your Console Window. Learn how to use the Standard Menus. Make sure you can move and resize windows, create new windows, cover up and bring to the front windows that are covered by using the standard menus as well as the Mouse. Again, some things will be specific to UB - see the Node Services pages.
Use these tools to create a new xterm, a Matlab Command window, and an aXe window.
Learn how to use at least one of the editors: vi, pico, aXe, GNU Emacs. You could also use xedit or nedit.
Learn how to use e-mail. (I
assume that all of you already know, but the Rice course is for confused
sophomores).
Laboratory Problems
These problems may be completed with help from any of your fellow students (as well as the instructor). You may not copy anyone else's work, but you can get other users to give you suggestions and point out mistakes that should be corrected.
- For these problems, you should record what you have done and submit it to the instructor.
1) Use Netscape to locate the notes for Chemical Engineering 303 (at Rice University) and for CE 502 here. Set bookmarks for the homepages of each of these (don't bother to bookmark the CENG 303 page at Rice University). Follow the links in this problem to see what information they provide about Netscape and bookmarks. Use the "Back" button to return to this document.
Set up your own
homepage to help you communicate with others and to have a place to
store results from this course.
There are instructions for how to do this at
UB posted on Node Services 'getting started' page, at
http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/UBiquity/Getting_Started/
Problems 2 through 4 were specific to Rice University, and have been omitted.
5) Get into MATLAB and define the vectors:
v1 with the numbers: -4, 5.6 and 600.2 in it, v2 with the characters asdefg in it, ts with the numbers: -.2, 0, .2, .4, .... 9.8, 10.0 in it.Note particularly the difference between numeric vectors and character strings. In defining ts be sure to use to use the method that sets vectors with elements on a regular spacing. Copy the session you used to define these to a file. The notes on Using the Mouse may be particularly helpful in this. Edit out mistakes you made during the session. Add comments in the file to explain what you did. Print out the file for your TA (or e-mail the complete filename to your TA). Of course, there is no TA - submit these problems to the instructor.
6) Solve the set of equations for the four unknowns: x1, x2, x3, x4
5x1 - 3x2 + x3 = 5 x1 + 2x2 - 3x3 + x4 = 1 3x2 - 5x3 + 6x4 = -5 -x1 + 2x3 - x4 = 0Check first to make sure the determinant of the coefficients on the left side of the equation is not zero. Then use matrix divide to solve the equations. Finally check to see that your answers are correct with matrix multiply.