Introduction to Computational Physics


Introduction to Computational Physics PHY220-01 This website provides course resources for Introduction to Computational Physics offered during the Spring Quarter of 2005 at Sinclair Community College. Please refer to the course syllabus for information concerning this course or contact the instructor by phone or email. The instructor's work phone and email addresses are available in the syllabus. Last updated: March 31, 2008 12:30 pm
Table of Contents I. Course Syllabus II. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 What is MATLAB? 1.2 Does MATLAB Do Symbolic Calculations? 1.3 Will MATLAB Run on My Computer? 1.4 Where Do I Get MATLAB? 1.5 How do I Use This Book? 1.6 Basics of MATLAB MATLAB windows Online Help Input-Output File Types 1.7 Points that will be visited again III. Chapter 2 Tutorial Lessons 2.1 Lesson 1: A Minimum MATLAB Sesssion In class exercises 2.2 Lesson 2: Creating and Working with Arrays of Numbers In class exercises 2.3 Lesson 3: Creating and Printing Simple Plots In class exercises 2.4 Lesson 4: Creating, Saving, and Executing a Script File In class exercises 2.5 Lesson 5: Creating and Executing a Function File In class exercises 2.6 Lesson 6: Working with Files and Directories In class exercises Level II Homework for Chapter 2 due April 4, 2007 IV. Chapter 3 Interactive Computation Matrix Problem with Scores The supporting file is ----> Text File of Scores Plotting and Fitting Exercises The supporting file is ---> A.xls Level II for Chapter 3 due 16, 2007 Supporting files are Force versus Elongation text file RPM versus Time text file V. Chapter 4 Programming in MATLAB: Scripts and Functions Flowcharts for major MATLAB constructs For Loop While Loop If Statement If else Statement If elseif Statement Switch Statement VI. Chapter 5 Applications Level II: Projectile Motion with Drag GIF of the Dimensions of the baseball field PDF of the Dimensions of the baseball field Air density dependence on air temperature Level II: Velocity Dependent Drag Coefficient and the drag data file. Polynomial fitting and Interpolation Lesson Supporting files for the lesson are located in a zip file. VII. Chapter 6 Graphics VIII. Mini Projects and Laboratories IX. Journal Outline IX. Other course resources a. Special Characters b. Functions c. Commands d. Rules for Writing & Using Function M-files e. Rules for Writing & Using For-Loops f. Continue & Break Statements g. Matlab Tutorial X. Other Types of Resources a. Mastering Matlab Website This is a portal website for the textbook used in this course, "Mastering Matlab 7". It provides a great source of information, files and additional resources necessary for the student to master this outstanding mathematical software calculation package. b. Mathworks Student Center This web page is the home page for the Student Center. A student can receive a wide variety of tutorials, examples or help when working with Matlab. It is highly recommended that you make a visit to this site and become acquainted with its value. c. Mathworks Documentation for Matlab At this link, one can find several documentation resources for Matlab. This documentation is in either html or printable form. d. Computational Physics textbook by Landau, Paez & Bordeianu e. Data sources for class work Global Monitoring Division More global datasets This site has free global datasets that are realistic and usable. The variety is outstanding with a PDF explaining the dataset format. XI. Purchasing a copy of Matlab 7 JourneyEd.com provides a wide variety of software for education. If you're interested in obtaining a copy of the Student Version of Matlab 7, go to this website. Mathworks also sells the Student Version of Matlab 7 directly.