Physics 115/242, Computational Physics

Instructor: Peter Young, ISB, 212
Time and Place: TTh 10:00-11:45 am, ISB 231
Office Hour: Mondays 1:00-2:00 pm, and at other times by appointment.

This course assumes that you can write a simple program in one of the following languages: C/C++, Java, or Fortran 90. Homework solutions will be given in C. If you are not sure whether you have sufficient fluency in programming, please see me.

The second half of the course will use Mathematica. No previous experience of this is required, since the basics will be discussed in the lectures and a 50 page introduction has been written for the class (which is available below).

You will also need a knowledge of classical and quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics at the undergraduate level.

Please email me at petery "at" ucsc.edu if you have any questions about necessary prior experience.

I have prepared a considerable amount of material for this class, which will be available on this web site.

Students' performance will be evaluated from homework assignments and projects, and a take home final examination.

Note: To access homework solutions you need a user name a password. The username is 115. The password will be announced in class.

Table of contents:

• Course Description
• Homework:
  • Homework 1     solutions
  • Homework 2     solutions
  • Homework 3     solutions
  • Molecular Dynamics Project   sample solution
  • Homework 4     data for Qu. 6     solutions
  • Homework 5     solutions
  • Monte Carlo Project    
  • Homework 6    
• Exams:
• Handouts:
  • Representation of numbers on the computer [pdf]
  • Mathematical equivalence does not mean computational equivalence [pdf]
  • Numerical Differentiation: Approximation and Roundoff Errors [pdf]
  • Romberg Integration [pdf]
  • Slowing down of the rate of convergence in numerical integration due to a singularity at the boundary of the region of integration (and how to avoid this) [pdf]
  • Numerical results for some root finding algorithms [pdf]
  • Comparison of methods for integrating the simple harmonic oscillator [pdf]
  • Runge-Kutta code for integrating the simple harmonic oscillator [rk2_SHO]
  • Leapfrog (Verlet) and other "symplectic" methods for integrating Newton's equations of motion [pdf]
  • The FPU problem (a talk by David Campbell)
  • The Kepler problem [pdf]
  • Sorting routines [pdf]    
  • Least squares fitting [pdf]
  • Approach to the central limit theorem [pdf]
  • Randu: a bad random number generator [pdf]
  • Estimating the error bar from the data [pdf]
  • How to use the C built-in random number generator rand():  randomnos.c
  • A simple random number generator in C:  testrandpy.c
  • Monte Carlo simulations in Statistical Physics [pdf]
  • Introduction to Mathematica [pdf]

Peter Young's Home Page