When I have the map, I will be free, and the world will be different because I have understanding [of] digital watches. And soon I will have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being!
Time Bandits (1981)
Text:Computational Physics (Giordano & Nakanishi)
Class:MWF 11:00 - 11:50
Office Hours:See Schedule
Final Exam:N/A

Homework Assignments   (DropBox)

 # AssignedDue Assignment
 
1Aug 29Sep 07 Hello World
2Sep 05Sep 12 Calculus
3Sep 14Sep 21 Numerical ODE Techniques
4Sep 24Sep 26 Numerical ODE Techniques II
5Sep 26Oct 01 Exploring Chaotic Behavior
6Oct 01Oct 05 Laplace's Equation
7Oct 03Oct 10 PDEs: Finite Diff. Techniques
8Oct 09Oct 17 Cellular Automata
9Oct 11Oct 17 A Matrix Class
 # Assigned Due Assignment
 
10Oct 17Oct 26 Random Numbers
11Oct 26Oct 31 Statistics
12Oct 29Nov 05 Monte Carlo Integration
13Nov 05Nov 12 Random Walks
14Nov 09Nov 16 Random Walks and DLA
15Nov 19Nov 28 The Ising Model
16Nov 26Dec 03 Fitting Data
17Nov 30Dec 07 Function Minimization (Amoeba)
 
 

Example Code

Our program for calculating pi
An example of using rand().
Our squarepi.cc example.
function syntax and Passing functions to functions.
Examples of how to handle arrays.
Using new and delete for allocating memory.
The ran0 algorithm.
An example matrix class.

Resources / Announcements

Node status and utilities for the Physics computing cluster.
I maintain a list of toy programs to illustrate programing concepts.
Please use this LaTeX template for all reports (see the Physics LaTeX page for help).
CYGWIN maintains a LINUX emulator for Windows. This is what is installed on the Reading Room PCs.
Lisa May's UNIX Cheat Sheet is a very nice quick reference guide.
vi cheat sheets from tuxfiles.org and the LUT CS and EE department.
Igor Pro example data files: orbit.dat and snowflake.dat
Keynote presentations on UNIX and programming.

Further Reading / Reference

A Book on C, by Al Kelley & Ira Pohl
C++: The Core Language, by Gregory Satir & Doug Brown
Essential C, by Nick Parlante
A Terse Guide to UNIX/LINUX, by Lowell Boone
Game Physics, by David H. Eberly
Using MPI, by Gropp, Lusk, and Skjellum