Introduction to Computational Physics
Yoram Lithwick (y-lithwick@northwestern.edu)
Syllabus
Office: Dearborn 9-C
Course Website: http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/yoram/phys252/phys252.html
Location and Hours: Tech F242, TTh 2-3:20pm
(See Grant Darktower in Tech F219 for a key to the lab)
Course Outline:
In this course, I will
show how to use computational methods to solve
a variety of
problems in physics.
Structure of Course:
-
Each class will consist of a lecture for around an hour,
followed by practice sessions in the lab.
- Assignments will be posted on the course website before
class.
- There will be an in-class mid-term.
- There will be a project to be completed by the end of the quarter.
You will work on a project of your choosing, after
consulting with me.
Grading:
Assignments (50%), Mid-Term (20%), Project (30%)
Textbooks:
Main Textbook:
COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS (Second Edition)
Giordano and Nakanishi
Pearson Prentice Hall (ISBN#: 0-13-146990-8)
Recommended if you do not know C:
ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO C (Second Edition)
Greg Perry
Sams Publishing (ISBN#: 0-672-30510-0)
Planned Topics:
Programming in C, variables, input/output, if/then, loops,
math, pointers, functions, plotting graphs with gnuplot
Ordinary differential equations, Euler method, radioactive decay, realistic projectiles
Oscillatory motion and chaos: Integration methods, Runge-Kutta and Verlet methods, rigid pendulum: linear, nonlinear, forced, and chaotic.
Chaos: surface of section, lyapunov time, chaos by overlapping resonances
Planetary dynamics, N-body problem, solar system
Waves on strings, solving partial differential equations, boundary conditions, movie of waves on string, dispersion relation
Fourier methods,solving waves with Fourier methods
Random systems, Brownian motion, diffusion, solving diffusion as a partial differential equation and as a random walk
Monte Carlo methods, Ising model