PHYS2061 Basic Computational Physics
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PHYS2061 Basic Computational Physics

This course provides students with the basic knowledge of computer programming and some basic numerical methods commonly used to solve problems in physics. Topics include: basic programming skills, interpolation, numerical integration of functions, solution of ordinary differential equations. There are computational laboratories for practice, demonstration and illustration of the subject matter. This course, together with PHYS3061 (Introduction to simulations of physical systems) and PHYS4061 (Computational Physics) provide basic, intermediate and advanced training on the important branch of computational physics. This fundamental course assumes no prior knowledge in programing. Please note that we will use Blackboard for all course materials/assignments/posting of zoom videos.
Lecturer

Prof. Yi Wang
Office: SC 208, Tel: 3943-6355, Email: yiwang@cuhk.edu.hk

Teaching Assistant(s)

Mr. Jia, Fan
Office: SC322 , Email: fjia@phy.cuhk.edu.hk

Mr. Gou, Yitao
Office: SC313 , Email: ytgou@phy.cuhk.edu.hk

Mr. Wang, Ziqi
Office: SC315 , Email: zqwang@phy.cuhk.edu.hk

Mr. Hui, Shek Fung
Office: SC315 , Email: sfhui@phy.cuhk.edu.hk


Lecture Class

  • Tue 9:30AM - 10:15AM ZOOM
  • Thr 9:30AM - 11:15AM ZOOM

    • Exercise Class

    Note: Exercise classes start on the 2nd week.
  • Mon 1:30PM - 2:15PM ZOOM
  • Fri 9:30AM - 10:15AM ZOOM

    • Lab

    Note: Labs start on the 2nd week. Please monitor the Announcement on Blackboard for the exact dates of the lab sessions.
  • Tue 1:30PM - 4:15PM ZOOM
  • Wed 1:30PM - 4:15PM ZOOM

    • Reference Books

  • B.W. Kernighan and D. M. Ritchie, The C programming language, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2005.
  • C Tutorial at www.cprogramming.com
  • W.H. Press, et al., Numerical recipes in C: the art of scientific computing, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • P.L. DeVries, A first course in computational physics, John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
  • J.H. Mathews, Numerical methods for mathematics, science, and engineering, Prentice Hall, 1992.
  • Rubin H. Landau, et al., A survey of computational physics: introductory computational science, Princeton University Press, 2008.

    • Assessment Scheme

    Homework 20%
    Lab 20%
    Quiz 15%
    Two projects 45%

    Course Outline

  • Chapter 0: Introduction
  • Chapter 1: C: Basic concepts
  • Chapter 2: C: Control logic and iteration
  • Chapter 3: C: Functions and program structure
  • Chapter 4: C: Arrays, pointers and structures
  • Chapter 5: Numerical methods: Root finding
  • Chapter 6: Numerical methods: Interpolation
  • Chapter 7: Numerical methods: Integration of functions
  • Chapter 8: Numerical methods: Ordinary differential equations
  • Matlab introduction