Scientific Computing Using Python

PHYS:4905 - Fall 2018

Schedule

Click on the topic description to view the web page or pdf for that lecture. If you find any errors in the lecture or elsewhere on the course website, please report them to the instructor.

Please do each reading before the class were it is assigned. The readings are from A Student's Guide to Python for Physical Modeling, Updated Edition (2018) by Jesse M. Kinder and Philip Nelson. The readings starting with LA are from Linear Algebra, by Cherney, Denton, Thomas, and Waldron, available at https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~linear/.

The assignments are due on the date noted at the beginning of class.

Dates	Topic	Reading	Assignment
8/21	Getting Started with Python	1.1-1.4, D.1-D.4	HW #1 due 8/23
8/23	Lists, tuples, arrays, and strings	2.1-2.3	HW #2 due 8/28
8/28	Scripts, branching, nesting	3.3, 3.4, 3.1, 3.2, 3.5	HW #3 due 8/30
8/30	Importing, exporting, and plotting data	4.1-4.3, A.2.2	HW #4 due 9/4
9/4	Solving a system of linear equations via Gaussian elimination	LA 2.1	HW #5 due 9/11
9/6	Python functions and Gaussian elimination in Python	6.1	HW #6 due 9/11
9/11	Elementary row operations as matrices, LU factorization	LA 2.3, 2.5	HW #7 due 9/18
9/13	Vectors and vector spaces	LA 4-4.4, 5.1-5.2
9/18	Linear operators and basis vectors	LA 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 10.0, 7.1	HW #8 due 9/25
9/20	No class
9/25	Matrices and their inverses	LA 7.3, 7.5	HW #9 due 10/2
9/27	Determinants	LA 8-8.2, 8.4
10/2	Image processing and display	6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 8.2
10/4	Review for exam		Practice exam #1
10/9	Exam #1
10/11	Finding your roots		HW #10 due 10/16
10/16	Linear fits
10/18	continued		HW #11 due 10/30
10/23	continued
10/25	Non-linear fits
10/30	continued		HW #12 due 11/6
11/1	Programming day, attend to redo HW #10 or #11
11/6	Eigenvalues and eigenvectors Practice	LA 12-12.3, 13-13.3	HW #13 due 11/13 answers
11/8	Orthonormal bases, diagonalizing symmetric matrices	LA 14-14.3, 15	HW #14 due 11/27
11/13	Numerical integration	6.7	HW #15 due 12/4
11/15	Coupled oscillators
11/19-23	Thanksgiving vacation
11/27	Numerical solution of differential equations		HW #16 due 12/7
11/29	Exam #2
12/4	Graphical user interfaces in Python
12/6	Programming day, attend to redo or hand in late HW #15 or #16.		All HW must be handed in by 12/9.