PHYS 361 - Computational Physics

Description:
Numerical methods of studying physical properties of realistic systems. FORTRAN, IMSL/MATH Library, and MATHEMATICA will be introduced. MATH 265 may be taken as a pre- or co-requisite.

Prerequisites:
Prerequisites: PHYS 113 or PHYS 123 or PHYS 183. Co- or pre- requisite: MATH 265.

Credits: (4)

Learner Outcomes, Activities and Assessments

Learner Outcome	Activity (optional)	Assessment
Students will effectively use programming packages Mathematica and MATLAB (requiring an understanding of what is under the hood of these programs)	Lecture, instructor modeling, individual and small-group computational projects	Computational and programming homework, midterm exam, computational modeling and programming project
Students will translate real-life physics problems into mathematical statements that a computer can solve	Lecture, instructor modeling, individual and small-group computational projects	Computational and programming homework, midterm exam, computational modeling and programming project
Students will implement simple algorithms and procedures in a structured programming language	Lecture, instructor modeling, individual and small-group computational projects	Computational and programming homework, midterm exam, computational modeling and programming project
Students will evaluate computational errors and understand their origins and behavior	Lecture, instructor modeling, individual and small-group computational projects	Computational and programming homework, midterm exam, computational modeling and programming project
Students will effectively display data and computational results	Instructor modeling, individual and small-group computational projects	Computational and programming homework, computational modeling and programming project