| Week 1 | Tuesday, January 14 | Thursday, January 16 |
| Introductions What is computational physics? |
Read Chapter 1-3 of True BASIC
Bronze (TBB) book LAB 1: Getting started in True BASIC Due Tuesday, January 21 |
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| Week 2 | Tuesday, January 21 | Thursday, January 23 |
| Lab 2: More Work with True BASIC Lab 2 due Tuesday January 28. |
Read Chapter 10 and 11 in TBB Lab 3: Using the Euler algorithm to solve Differential Equations Lab 3 due Tuesday January 28. HW 1: Coffee Cooling and the Euler Algorithm Due Tuesday January 28 |
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| Week 3 | Tuesday, January 28 | Thursday, January 30 |
| Lots of stuff to have turned
in today... Read preface and chapter 1 of Computational Physics text. HW 2: type in and understand the radioactive decay problem in chapter 1 of Comp. Physics |
Lab 4: Kinematics and more! | |
| Week 4 | Tuesday, February 4 | Thursday, February 6 |
| Lab Report Discussion and discussion on population program | All programs from lab 4 due at
end of class (No extensions) Lab report draft due by Friday at 4 pm. Work on lab reports and check functionality of web pages for turning in programs. |
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| Week 5 | Tuesday, February 11 | Thursday, February 13 |
| Read Chapter 2 sections 1 and 2
of Giordano. First steps toward project: Assignment 1. Space Shuttle Discussion |
Completed version of Population
program report due Friday by 5 pm. Must have kinematics program for shuttle problem done BEFORE entering class. This program will be turned in at the beginning of class and count as a hw grade. You should look up the initial conditions from the web, try the New York Times as a first place. Be ready to discuss your program. Bring up questions of lab report here.... Lab 5 Space Shuttle Project |
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| Week 6 | Tuesday, February 18 | Thursday, February 20 |
| Present your preliminary results
on space shuttle modeling. HW 3 Turn in 2 different programs for shuttle modeling (i.e. 2 different models). Make sure your programs are well commented. Project Discussion Grade Reports Given Out (it wasn't pretty...) |
Project
Proposal Due You should have completed HW 3 and be ready to add some more physics to your model. Lab 6 More Space Shuttle Project Lab Report due Friday February 28 by 5 pm |
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| Week 7 | Tuesday, February 25 | Thursday, February 27 |
| Read section 3.1 of Giordano HW 4 Exercise 1 on p 48 of Giordano Due Thursday February 27 before class |
Student Presentations of
Project Proposal |
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| Week 8 | Tuesday, March 4 | Thursday, March 6 |
| SPRING VACATION | SPRING VACATION | |
| Week 9 | Tuesday, March 11 | Thursday, March 13 |
| Read section 3.2 of Giordano HW 5 Exercise 4 on p 55 of Giordano (don't do the Lyapunov exponent part) Due Thursday March 13 |
Lab
7 Chaos in the Damped Driven Pendulum |
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| Week 10 | Tuesday, March 18 | Thursday, March 20 |
| Discuss exam I | EXAM I | |
| Week 11 | Tuesday, March 25 | Thursday, March 27 |
| take home portion of EXAM due Lab 8 Lyapunov Exponent and the Chaotic Pendulum |
Computational Project Day | |
| Week 12 | Tuesday, April 1 | Thursday, April 3 |
| Intro to Random Processes, Gas particles in box Lab report on Chaos in Damped Driven Pendulum Due |
Random Processes Lab 9 | |
| Week 13 | Tuesday, April 8 | Thursday, April 10 |
| Computational Project Day | Random Walk - lecture | |
| Week 14 | Tuesday, April 15 | Thursday, April 17 |
| Random Walk Lab 10 | Fractals, Lab 11 | |
| Week 15 | Tuesday, April 22 | Thursday, April 24 |
Work on Projects |
Project Talks each talk gets 10 minutes Report on Project due last day of finals |