Math 215b
Winter 2012

Home Syllabus Homework Office Hours Exams

This schedule is only tentative, and may be adjusted as necessary.

Date Topics Book Event
Week 1
Jan 09 Homework 1 posted.
Jan 10 What is homotopy? The fundamental group. Pages 1-14, Section 1.1 Handout given.
Jan 11  
Jan 12 Basepoints and the fundamental group of the circle. Functoriality. Section 1.1
Jan 13  
Week 2
Jan 16 Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan 17 Fundamental group of spheres. Van Kampen's theorem. Sections 1.1, 1.2
Jan 18 Homework 2 posted.
Jan 19 The fundamental group of CW-complexes. Sections 1.2, 1.A, 0 Homework 1 due by 5pm.
Jan 20 Solutions to homework 1 posted. Correction about subtrees of graphs.
Week 3
Jan 23    
Jan 24 Covering spaces. Lifting properties. Section 1.3  
Jan 25 Homework 3 posted.
Jan 26 Covering spaces and the fundamental group. Section 1.3
Jan 27 Homework 2 due by 5pm. Final day to add or drop a class (5pm). Solutions to homework 2 posted.
Week 4
Jan 30
Jan 31 The correspondence theorem. Sections 1.3 Homework 3 due date changed to February 7th.
Feb 01  
Feb 02 Group actions. Singular homology. Sections 1.3, 1.A, 2.1
Feb 03
Week 5
Feb 06  
Feb 07 Singular homology, path components and the fundamental group. Section 2.1, 2.A Homework 3 due by 5pm. Midterm exam posted.
Feb 08 Solutions to homework 3 posted.
Feb 09 Homotopy invariance of singular homology. Long exact sequence of a pair. Sections 2.1, 2.2
Feb 10
Week 6
Feb 13 Rewriting of the proof of homotopy invariance of singular homology from the textbook.
Feb 14 The homology of the spheres and the Mayer-Vietoris sequence. Sections 2.1, 2.2
Feb 15
Feb 16 Cellular homology and degree of maps. Sections 2.1, 2.2 Midterm due by 5pm. Homework 4 posted.
Feb 17 Solutions to Midterm posted.
Week 7
Feb 20 Presidents' day
Feb 21 Cellular homology and degree of maps II. Sections 2.2
Feb 22
Feb 23 Classical applications of homology. Section 2.B
Feb 24
Week 8
Feb 27     Homework 5 posted.
Feb 28 The proof of excision. The homology of projective spaces. Sections 2.1, 2.2 Homework 4 due by 5pm. Solutions to homework 4 posted.
Feb 29
Mar 01 Singular cohomology. The universal coefficient theorem for cohomology. Sections 3.1
Mar 02 Deadline for withdrawing and change of grading basis (5pm).
Week 9
Mar 05 Homework 6 posted.
Mar 06 The cup product and the cohomology ring. Section 3.2 Homework 5 due by 5pm. Solutions to homework 5 posted.
Mar 07
Mar 08 Kunneth formula and the cohomology ring of projective spaces. Section 3.2
Mar 09
Week 10
Mar 12
Mar 13 Orientability and homology with coefficients. Sections 2.2, 3.3
Mar 14
Mar 15 Poincare duality. Section 3.3 Homework 6 due by 5pm. Solutions to homework 6 posted.
Mar 16
Final Exam
Mar 22 Final Exam, 3:30-6:30pm, Room 380-380F. Solutions to final exam posted.
Mar 26 Exams section updated and final grades submitted.

Winter 2012-- Department of Mathematics, Stanford University
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