About

Table of contents

  1. Synopsis
  2. Syllabus
  3. Lecture
  4. Resources
  5. Assignments
  6. Books
  7. Acknowledgements and Support

Synopsis

PHY432 logo

Computational Methods in Physics is an undergraduate class run in the Department of Physics at Arizona State University. The instructor is Oliver Beckstein.

The course provides an introduction to using the computer as a tool to solve problems in physics. Students will learn to analyze problems, select appropriate numerical algorithms, implement them using Python, a programming language widely used in scientific computing, and critically evaluate their numerical results. Problems will be drawn from diverse areas of physics.

Syllabus

For details about the class content, grading, and expectations please see the Syllabus (PDF).

Lecture

See the weekly schedule.

  • Tue/Thu 1:30 pm – 2:45pm, PSH 355
  • bring your laptop
  • face covering are recommended (current university policies apply)

Resources

Resources for the interactive classes are provided in the GitHub repository Py4Phy/PHY432-resources.

For further details see the PHY432 Course Page.

Assignments

See GitHub Classroom links in Canvas (ASU PHY432 Spring 2024).

Books

The two recommended books for the class are

  1. Computational Modeling and Visualization of Physical Systems with Python, Jay Wang (2016) Wiley-VCH. ISBN: 978-1-119-17918-4
  2. Computational Physics: Problem Solving with Python, 3rd Edition, Rubin H. Landau, Manuel J. Páez, Cristian C. Bordeianu. (2015) Wiley-VCH. ISBN: 978-3-527-41315-7

Additional books on online resources

  1. Effective Computation in Physics. Field Guide to Research with Python, Anthony Scopatz and Kathryn D. Huff. (2015) O’Reilly
  2. Software Carpentry (especially the lessons on the Unix Shell, Version Control with Git, and Programming with Python)

Acknowledgements and Support

The class is supported by an Education Discount from the nice folks at GitHub Education and uses Classroom for GitHub.

GitHub Education