Physics 177: Computational Physics

Winter 2019

Logistics

Lecture

MWF 5:10pm - 6:00pm, Physics 2111
Note: Computational work will be performed online and on your own computers, so we will not be using the computer labs.

Instructor

Prof. John P. Barton
Materials Science and Engineering 234
john.barton@ucr.edu

Office hours

By appointment

Course summary

Computers have become essential tools for the advancement of physics. What are their limitations, and how can we use them most effectively? We will survey these topics in PHYS 177. Some potential focus areas include:

• precision and propagation of errors
• numerical integration methods
• Monte Carlo simulation
• data analysis and visualization
• machine learning and optimization

We will use Python 3 to introduce methods and assignments, along with Jupyter notebooks. The syllabus, course web page, and assignments will all be hosted on GitHub.

Grading and assessment

Credit will be assigned as follows:

• homework (40%)
• in-class work and participation (20%)
• midterm exam (15%)
• final exam (25%)

I encourage you to freely collaborate with other students on homework and projects.