PHYSICS 305: Computational Physics

Schedule:  Spring 2002

 WEEK DATES	              LECTURE/LAB			  ASSIGNMENT
  1   1/14   Computational Physics, Computers, and Languages.	  Ch. 1 & 2.
      1/15   LAB: Windows Basics and True BASIC.	          Get Disks
      1/16   Coffee Cooling and the Euler Algorithm.	          & notebooks.

  2   1/21   HOLIDAY: Martin Luther King Day
      1/22   LAB: Numerical Example & Coffee Cooling Problem.	  Ch. 2
      1/23   More True BASIC, Structured Programming: Loops,
             Conditionals, Subroutines.

  3   1/28   Graphing in True BASIC, Accuracy and Stability.
      1/29   LAB: More Coffee Cooling.
      1/30   Networking: Telnet, FTP, and the World Wide WEB.

  4   2/4    Falling Objects.	                                  Ch. 3
      2/5    LAB: Falling Objects.
      2/6    Debugging Programs and Graphing Programs.

  5   2/11   Two Body Problem                        .            Ch. 4 (4.1-7)
      2/12   LAB: Two Body Problem.
      2/13   Simple Harmonic Oscillator and Numerical Algorithms.

  6   2/18   HOLIDAY: President's Day.                            Ch. 5 (5.1-6,
      2/19   LAB: SHO.                                            5A)
      2/20   More Numerical Algorithms, Printing, and TB Windows
      2/20   Projects Discussion

  7   2/25   SHO continued: Damped and Driven Oscillations.
      2/26   LAB: SHO.
      2/27   MIDTERM: Chapters 1 - 4.
 
  8   3/4    Chaos.	                                          Ch. 6 (6.1-4)
      3/5    LAB: Chaos.
      3/6    ********Written Project Proposal Due**************
      3/6    Using Mathcad.

  9   3/11   Chaos continued.
      3/12   LAB: Chaos.
      3/13   Universality and the Chaotic Pendulum.

 10   3/18   Random Processes.	                                  Ch. 7 (7.1,3-5)
      3/19   LAB: Random Processes.
      3/20   Probability Problems and Least Squares Fits.

 11   3/25-29   Spring Recess.

 12   4/1    Electrodynamics.	                                  Ch. 10 (10.1-2)
      4/2    LAB: Electrodynamics.
      4/3    Magnetism and Magnetic Field Lines.

 13   4/8    Electrodynamics continued.
      4/9    LAB: Electrodynamics.
      4/10   ****** Project Review.
      4/10   Using Spreadsheets.

 14   4/15   Numerical Integration and Monte Carlo Methods.	  Ch. 11 (11.1-4,
      4/16   LAB: Numerical Integration and Monte Carlo Methods.   11A)
      4/17   Errors.

 15   4/22   Percolation.	                                  Ch. 13.(13.1-4)
      4/23   LAB: Percolation.
      4/24   MIDTERM: Chapters 5 - 11.

 16   4/29   Percolation continued.
      4/30   LAB: Percolation.
      5/1    Fractals.	                                          Ch. 14 (14.1-2)

 17   5/6    Fractals.
      5/7    LAB: Fractals.
      5/8    Fractals and Project Hints.