ZCE 111/4 Computational Physics

 

Synopsis

 

The course aims at training physics students to use computer to solve realistic physics problems and to provide them with tools and knowledge they can utilize throughout their career in the future. The students shall acquire some ideas of what is possible with computers and what type of tools are available for computing real physics problems. This course covers some of the basics of computation, numerical analysis, and programming from a computational science point of view.  This will be a practical course focused on application of mathematics and physics using computer rahter than an introductory programming or computer science, with minimal discussion of computer science theory.

           

 

Learning Ourcome

           

At the end of the course, students will

 

1)     show proficiency in programming and using  mathematical packages

2)     be able to use computer software to visualise physics formulae

3)     be able to use computer software to solve fairly complex physics problems

4)     be able to write codes to solve numerical problems

 

 

Main textbook

            Computational Physics, 2/E

            Author: Nicholas J. Giordano, Hisao Nakanishi

            Publisher: Addison-Wesley

            Published: 07/21/2005


Mathematica Reference
            Mathematica Documentation Center

          http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/guide/Mathematica.html

 

Other References

1.         A First Course in Scientific Computing: Symbolic, Graphic, and Numeric Modeling Using Maple, Java, Mathematica, and     Fortran90

            Author: Rubin H. Landau. Publisher: Princeton University Press (April 11, 2005)

 

2.         Computational Physics: Problem Solving with Computers by Rubin H. Landau, Manuel J. Páez, and Cristian C. Bordeianu (Paperback - Sep 21, 2007)

 

3.         An Introduction to Computational Physics, by Tao Pang, Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (February 13, 2006)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lecture-by-lecture schedule

 

Lecture and tutorial

Topics

Contact hours

Week 1

Root finding and optimization

 

4 h

Week 2

Fitting data to a function

4 h

Week 3

Numerical integration

 

4 h

Week 4

Visualizing of data

 

4 h

Week 5

Matrix operation and manipulation

 

4 h

Week 6

Week 7

Monte Carlo applications

 

8 h

Week 8

Solving eigen value problem numerically

 

8 h

Week 9

Week 10

Solving ordinary differential equations numerically

 

8 h

Week 11

Week 12

Finite difference method

 

8 h

Week 13

Week 14

Project

8 h

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

56