Instructor: Charles Kankelborg, EPS 260C (x7853) kankel@solar.physics.montana.edu
Office hours: W F 2-3 or by appointment
Grading: Approximately 60 points regular assignments, 60 points final project (includes proposal, first draft, and final paper). A 10% penalty will be assessed for late work.
Text: Numerical Recipes in C, 2nd ed., Press et al.
Website: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/kankel/ph567/
This course will be hands-on, practical and intuitive. By the end of the semester, you will have the right equipment in your toolbox to solve several classes of problems that are difficult or impossible to solve analytically. We will also discover the limitations of many algorithms by devising ways to fool them.
Homework will be assigned approximately every two weeks. The assignments, including source code and results, should be handed in by email. If you include graphs, please use a portable format such as EPS, JPEG, PDF, etc. I favor C as a programming language, but you may use IDL, Matlab, or GNU Octave (not Mathematica, which is a different sort of beast).
The final project is an opportunity to learn by attacking a substantial (but tractable) computational physics problem. This could be a theoretical model or data analysis. The work need not be original. However, a problem relevant to your research would be ideal; talk to your advisor. Formulate a concise (1-3 pp) proposal and turn it in electronically by Friday, February 23. The proposal should describe the problem, your goals, and the approach you intend to take. The proposal, once accepted, will be worth 10 points (as much as a homework assignment). Your final paper on the project should be brief but informative, with a format similar to a journal article (an informative abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, and any relevant references). I recommend that you learn to use LaTeX. If you use a word processor, be aware that equations sometimes turn into nonsense when transferred to a different computer that may not have exactly the same fonts. A first draft is due by email Friday, April 1, and is worth 10 points. I will ``referee'' your paper to guide you in revising and completing it. The final draft, due by email Friday, April 29, is worth up to 40 points.