PHY102 - Physics Computations I (Spring 2006)
Maintained by
Phil Duxbury
All course materials, worksheets and solutions will be posted here
Instructor
Prof. Phil Duxbury - BPS4260, 355-9200x2301, duxbury@pa.msu.edu
Course Outline
This is the first in a series of three one credit classes in
physics computations(PHY102,
PHY201 ,
PHY301 ).
The objective of these courses is to
give students a sound knowledge of the important computational
techniques and tools used in physics. PHY102 concentrates
on Mathematica. This is a powerful general purpose program to
do algebraic and numerical calculations, graphics and animation
for a variety of mathematics and physics problems.
During PHY102 you will apply Mathematica
to physics problems drawn from material
covered in PHY183 and/or PHY193H.
In addition to the algebraically solvable problems typically
assigned in courses, you will also solve more complex problems
numerically. Examples include the non-linear pendulum, motion
in a gravitational field and chaos in simple maps.
A weekly worksheet forms the core of the course.
Laboratory Time - BPS1240
- Thursday: 6-9pm
Course Assessment
75% will come from your solution to the weekly worksheets. For each
worksheet which is not completed your grade is reduced by 0.5. If you
complete all the worksheet you get a 3.0 grade.
25% will come from a one hour practical exam at the end of the semester.
This exam will be held in the last week of semester
during your regular
lab. time. In the exam you will be asked to
perform mathematica functions you have
used in the worksheets during the semester. Nothing new will be
introduced. You will need to know how to use the online help facility.
Lab. Exam
The lab. exam is intended to test how well you know mathematica.
If you know the basic commands well and work efficiently, you
will finish in the allocated 1 hr.
Less than two questions complete -> add 0.0
Between two and four questions complete -> add 0.5
Four or more questions complete -> add 1.0
The worksheets for PHY102
Worksheet 1 - Due 9pm Thursday, January 19th (
Sample notebook,
pdf )
Worksheet 2 - Due 9pm Thursday, January 26th (
pdf )
Worksheet 3 - Due 9pm Thursday February 2nd (
pdf)
Worksheet 4 - Due 9pm Thursday February 9th (
pdf)
Worksheet 5 - Due 9pm Thursday February 16th (
pdf)
Worksheet 6 - Due 9pm Thursday February 23rd (
pdf)
Worksheet 7 - Due 9pm Thursday March 2nd (
pdf)
Worksheet 8 - Due 9pm Thursday March 16th (
pdf)
Worksheet 9 - Due 9pm Thursday March 23rd (
pdf)
Worksheet 10 - Due 9pm Thursday March 30th (
pdf)
Worksheet 11: Review sheet 1 - Due 9pm Thursday April 6th (
pdf)
Worksheet 12 - Due 9pm Thursday April 13th (
pdf)
Worksheet 13 - Due 9pm Thursday April 20th (
pdf)
1 hour lab. exam next week(April 27th) 6:00-7:00pm
Helpfiles for PHY102
Introduction to
Mathematica (Written by Ellen Lau)
Introduction to
Linux Computing in BPS1240.
The
mathematica website
, it is very useful. In particular there are
variety of tutorials
to get you started. In addition the entire
mathematica book is there.