Welcome to Functional Analysis, MATH36202 and MATHM6202, a double batched module for undergraduate students in year 3 and 4 at the University of Bristol. This page summarizes all key information and contains most course materials, most importantly our weekly schedule with links to recorded lectures on my YouTube channel.
Key organizational information:
Instructor: Thomas Bothner
Office: 2A.15, Fry Building
Contact: thomas.bothner@bristol.ac.uk and +44 117 455 2070
This course will be taught in a semi-traditional fashion: you will acquire new theoretical knowledge in the classroom but we will focus foremost on concepts and practical work. Content reaches you through lecture notes, in-class lesson notes, Blackboard learning materials and a series of supporting videos. Further details, including learning outcomes and assessment criteria, are summarized in the syllabus.
Depending on whether you are enrolled in MATH36202 or MATHM6202, please familiarize yourself with the unit descriptions, click here for MATH36202 and here for MATHM6202. Throughout, there will be no distinction between the two levels as far as course content, exercises or assessed homeworks are concerned. However, there will be a slight difference between MATH36202 and MATHM6202 in the May 2026 written exam, see our Blackboard page for previous exams.
Course materials (click the links):
Welcome to Functional Analysis - Introductory slides
Lecture Notes (January 5th, 2026 version - let me know about typos)
Exercises (solutions on Blackboard, once discussed in class)
Weekly schedule: (Office Hour=OH, Class=C, Support Session=SP)
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Week 13, January 19th - January 23rd:
Topics: Normed linear spaces, bounded linear transformations, equivalent norms, Hoelder and Minkowski inequalities, operator norms, examples (page 8-17 in the lecture notes)
Do: Exercise sheet 1, to be worked on in C on Jan 19th, 20th, 23rd
Meet: OH, Jan 19th (11:30-12:30); C, Jan 19th (10:00-11:00), Jan 22nd (15:00-16:00), Jan 23rd (11:00-12:00)
Can watch as support: w13v1, w13v2, w13v3, w13v4, w13v5, w13v6