Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 3 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Prerequisite

One subject in linear algebra and some experience with proofs.

Textbook

Most of the material for the class will follow the text:

Silverman, Joseph H., and John Tate. Rational Points on Elliptic Curves. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1 August 1992. ISBN: 0387978259.

The last two lectures are based on the textbook below:

Koblitz, Neal. Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms. 2nd ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993. ISBN: 0387979662.

Description

The goal of this course is first and foremost to allow students to develop skills in communicating mathematics to others. They also learn some interesting number theory along the way! Because it is important that every speaker have a supportive audience, attendance is mandatory. There are also weekly homeworks and a final paper.

Problem Sets

There are ten regular problem sets, due at lecture, and a final paper. There is no final exam.

Grading