Physics 102: Computational Physics in MATLAB

Professor Jessica Kintner

This is the course web page for Physics 102, Spring 2018

Jessica Kintner's Information:

  • Office: Gal 106-B
  • Office hours: TBA, and by appointment
  • email: jkintner@stmarys-ca.edu

Class Information

Recent announcements:

  • 4/12 Exam 2 will be Thursday, April 19. It will cover Chapters 12-13, and Chris Ray's section on Curve Fitting. For class dates, that would be 3/20-4/10. (Not much was new in Ch 12.)
  • 3/8 Exam 1 will be Thursday, March 15. It will cover Ch 1-4, and 9.1, and 9.5
  • 3/8 For all the .m files that you turn in, I am starting to list them by name in the "due to me" column. Be sure to add your name! So for example, if I say turn in incline.m, it should be: incline_YourName.m
  • 3/6 I updated the instructions for turning in script files. See links under course info to the left.
  • 3/5 I emailed back the corrected/commented HW that was due 2/27. Search for JCK in the documents to find my comments.
  • 3/5 I posted the grades for the HW due 2/27 onto moodle. I am still playing with moodle a bit, so you can ignore lots of it. The HW due 2/27 should be correct and match the scores at the top of the two docs I returned today. (diary file and resist2D.m files)
  • It would be great if you can arrive in class the very first day with the textbook and a working copy of MATLAB installed on whatever machine you plan to use.

Calendar

Date
Section
Topic
Homework
Due to me (11am)
5/22
all
Final Exam
1-3pm
5/17
all
Presentations
5/15
all
Review, part 2
reviewFinal2.txt
Finish Review 2 Handout
5/10
all
Finish Review 1 Handout
5/8
14.6.2
Finish handout
email me if you'd like to present your final Project
5/3
Finish the handout.
14.7, Rewrite of Example 8.3
5/1
14.6
MATLAB's ode, handout
Finish the first problem from handout
4/26
Runge-Kutta Methods
handout
Finish the handout and write matlab scripts for Examples 8.1-3 in Newman. (Newman has them in Python.)
4/24
14.4.4
Predictor-Corrector Method
handout
14.7, finish handout
4/19
13, Ray's 5.4
4/17
13, Ray's 5.4
muonDecay.m (which includes both problems 2 and 3 from 4/5's handout)
Request topic for final project
my muonDecay.m
4/12
14.4
Euler Method, handout
4/10
Ch 13
Finish the handout from last time, Final Project Assigned
Finish the handout from last time
4/5
Ch 13
More simulations,
another fminsearch example
to be used with: verticalMotion.txt
handout
Problem 1 from today's handout
All named script files from 3/22 handout: sumSquares.m, leastSquaresLine.m, and useFmin.m
my leastSquareLine.m my useFminsearch.m
3/22
Finish all of today's rewrite handout
3/20
Least squares fitting, try it
3/15
Ch 1-4, 9.1, 9.5
Exam 1
3/13
Ch 1-4, 9.1, 9.5
quadratic.m, incline.m, kirchhoff.txt my quadratic.m, my incline.m, and solutions HW worksheet
3/8
Ch 4
save and load, review Kirchhoff, matrices, worksheet, mysteryData.txt
homework (fixed a missing $R_3 = 10\Omega$)
3/6
Ch 3
Functions, worksheet
3.4, 5 from end of chapter, for each write a function to calculate conversion or quadratic. Call them tempConv.m and quadratic.m respectively. problem 5 from today's In Class worksheet.
2.18, 23 pp78-81, 9.1, 2 pp231, 9.2 p 198 solutions
3/1
9.1,9.5
9.1, 2, 3 pp 231, 9.2 p 198
2/27
Ch 2
For loops and If/Then
2.14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23 pp78-81
log of 2.1, 3, 4, script for Worksheet #12
2/20
Ch 2.1-4
Variables, arrays, scalars, matrices and vectors, Writing scripts to plot motion
Read 2.4-2.6, do 2.1, 3, 4, 5 on pp 53-54, finish 1-8 on worksheet from class.
2.6-8
2/15
Ch 1
2.6, 7, 8 (pp53-54)
2/13
Ch 1
Intro and MATLAB