This course is a one quarter graduate level course in numerical methods that are required to do computational science generally, and computational physics specifically. The course presupposes that the student has a strong mathematical background, such as calculus, differential equations, and mathematical anaylsis. A knowledge of a mathematical programming language is essential; Fortran will be best but a knowledge of C or C++ will work as well.One resourse for the course will be Numerical Recipes, a well known handbook in this general area. It is available for download for free; only certain portions will be necessary for this course.
There will be some emphasis on what should not be calculated, in addition to the obvious point that computation should be done in an informed manner. |
This book will be used in the course:
Real Computing Made Real by Forman S. Acton (Princeton University Press, 1996) Forman Acton was the author of the 1970 book Numerical Methods That Work that set the tone for this following book, for Numerical Recipes, and for several others that have followed as the need for wise and accurate computation has grown. |