Computational Definition and 321 Threads

I'm trying to find a good starting point in comp. phy. ; emphasizing particles,chemical,physical problems,solid state,q.m,nanotech... simulations into a (2D or 3D) virtual environment(for research and engineering), (analogy: just like game engines or robotics animations), in an quantitative and...

Hi, I'm reading Bilal's notes on SUSY, hep-th/0101055v1, and have some computational questions. So I understand that spinors can be seen as objects carrying the basis rep. of SL(2,C), and how SO(3,1) is locally isomorphic to SU(2)XSU(2), giving basically two "sectors". With dots and bars we...

After a long bumbling few years and with much help on various thread from the physics forums folks, I think I am now going to take the path of least resistance and finish up my CS degree. Prior I had planned to go through with a physics degree, but it just isn't practical at this time and I...

like for any algorithm? On wikipedia it lists for multiplication it's O(n^2) but some of them have decimals like O(5/2n^2.2342) or something so how would you determine that? Just use a computer and make a graph of input in bytes vs time in seconds and fit a curve to it? Like I understand for...

Homework Statement I tried to solve mechanical system of particles. I first tried with two particles rotating with respect to each other. Of course, i solved this using computer with Runge kutta 4th order method. Here's the problem. I used the same method in C and Mathematica. In mathematica it...

I've been interested in math and physics, and I already have a pretty good list of pure math books I'm going to read. (I'm about to start Spivak's "Calculus".) However, I also want to learn about physics, so I would like some recommendations for math books that are more "computational". I'm not...

Hi all, i'm finishing my master studies this year (physics) and I'm planning to go into grad school next year. Does anybody know which US universities have strong programs & research in computational neuroscience and neuroinformatics? my current theme of research is brain funcional connectivity...

I know roughly what Computational Astrophysics is but if someone would like to explain it in depth it would be appreciated. To me this seems like a cool field of study and I want to consider doing graduate research on this. Are there are particular classes I MUST take as an undergrad to...

Using Matlab to solve for the satellite motion in a central gravitational field F=-GmM r/r2. Motion is in a plane.Variables are position(x,y),velocity(vx,vy) and accelration (ax,ay). Apply the leapfrog method.I need the theoretical solution alone to input into Matlab. Thanks.

Hi all, I am in the middle of writing a piece of scientific software which needs to know where a particle at (x,y,z) is in relation to a 3-D model. This part of the code needs to know what object (x,y,z) is inside, and which objects are next to that object containing the particle for when...

Hi All. I'm an engineering student switching over to physics. I was wondering what would be some of the courses that I would have to take if I wanted to get proficient at crudely modeling physical phenomenon...e.g collapse of a proto solar disk...formation of planets, impacts of comets etc...

Homework Statement I am taking a computational physics course right now and we have to do a project for the semester. I have been trying to think of a project to do. It can be a pretty wide range of things. So far we have been doing various numerical approximations with different...

Hello, I have recently become interested in computational physics. I know a good deal of Mathematica. Recently I have heard great things about Python. My questions are: 1) How useful is Python in computation? 2) Would there be a better program to learn instead of Python for computation? Any...

Hi all. This question has been asked previously on this forum but there was no reply I think. Which are the good programs for computational physics? I did (am doing) my Bachelor's and Master's in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay. I got interested in CFD at first, but then my senior thesis...

I *think* I am interested in Computational Physics, from what I have seen around from Googling the topic, as well as from some YouTube videos. I was wondering what kind of careers are available for someone interested in Computational Physics (I want to do something in research) and are...

Recently I was asking myself this question too often: who would realistically hire a candidate with B.S. in computational mathematics alone w/o any experience? I understand that there is a math major and there is a computer science major. Computational math seems to be something in between...

I'm thinking about taking either one of these. What's your opinion on both of them, and which one will have a greater impact on the world? I know that's a vague question, but I'll explain: AI is rife with false-starts and disillusionments along the way. I guess neuroscience might be "safer"...

The following email was sent out via the computational neuroscience mailing list [Comp-neuro]. Since Comp-neuro is a public list I think it is fine to repost this here (I am not the author). Perhaps someone will find this useful... -Cincinnatus...

i want to get into computers but i want to major in math some schools I'm interested in offer things like computational math for example, a school i might attend offers a few math majors pure math applied math math-computer science and math-scientific computation the latter...

Hello everyone, I'm in my 4th year of college as a Biological Science major with a minor in Mathematics and am ready to apply to a PhD program in Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics at my current institution. Overall, I have about 3.6 with a lot of basic sciences at a Community...

Hi, I am in a computational physics class and we are programming projectile motion in python. I do not know why I am having such a hard time at this, but I cannot get my programs to work. Homework Statement Calculate the effect of backspin on a fastball. How much does an angular velocity of...

Hi. I just finished medical school and I want to start studying computational biology (and maybe pursue a PhD at systems biology). I have a very good level of physiology knowledge but, as most medical students, I am not good at mathematics. So every time I start reading a book, I mess it up when...

I love doing proofs, but hate doing computational questions. If I become very good with proofs but remain just so-so with calculational problems, can I still become a good mathematician? My favourite subject is topology.

The professor of my undergrad quantum course said that I could get some extra credit if I did some sort of outside project and presented it to the class (for example, for my E&M Professor I built a Tesla Coil). Since it will be somewhat difficult to do something physical/hands on for quantum...

A complete set of lecture notes for an upper-division computational physics course. Topics covered include scientific programming in C, the numerical solution of ordinary and partial differential equations, particle-in-cell codes, and Montecarlo methods...

Pretty much every professor in my physics department has said that it when it comes to American physics graduate school, it is harder to get in as a theory student than as an experimentalist. Do graduate programs consider computational physics, numerical material sciences, etc... essentially...

There are a few threads in this forum about CFD, but I thought I'd establish one for a general discussion of CFD methods and applications and tie it in with others as appropriate. In the December '07 issue of Aerospace America in the Aerospace Sciences section is a short article on the recent...

If i have a program, how can i find the computational complexity? is there some other program i can run in the background?

Hi, I'm interested in pursuing a career in computational science and numerical computing and so on. I'm looking for some fairly general advice on how to direct my studies. I started learning programming in java, which I very much prefer to program in these days, having had some exposure to...

Ok here's the scoop. I'm fresh out of high school and starting my first year at college. Before I get too deep into one particular area and get stuck I was hoping I could get some help here and some useful advice from you guys. Bottomline: I love math and I love physics and as of right now I...

Hi, hope this is the right area for this. I'm currently doing preliminary research for my computer science dissertation. I'm thinking of doing something in CFD...either representing the effects of wind on fur, or simulating a river flowing. Most CFD 'googles' have resulted in me finding...

Computational Physics: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/329/lectures/lectures.html An introductory course Integration of ODEs The chaotic pendulum Poisson's equation The diffusion equation The wave equation Particle-in-cell codes Monte-Carlo methods All very...

How is the job security, and/or salary for a student studying computational science?

I am in need of a project that needs to be based around "computational physics" firstly, can someone define "computational physics" for me? My best understanding is that it's the physics that have more to do with math and equations versus physical exploitations. secondly, does anyone have...

On the surface, Computational Physics appeals to me a lot. I'm very interested in physics, computer programming, creating simulations of mechanical systems, and games programming. However, I don't really know what Computational Physics is. What would I learn? How attractive would I be to...

Hi there - I'm new to the forum... I need help! I have to research an interesting problem in the topic of fluids and fields which can be solved/investigated through Computational methods. To do this we're supposed to use google - but it's just not coming up with anything. Any suggestions...

Hi, First I hope it is okay to post the problem here(?). I have some general questions regarding the use of software for chemistry simulations - my questions are more fundamental than software specific. I would like to simulate a chemical reaction - so I should be searching for the saddle...

I would like to start a discussion that summarizes the main computational challenges regarding Turing machines, so my question is: what are the current computational problems which are widely recognized do not have any efficient solution in a probabilistic turing machine. Maybe you can answer...

Hello, I have to write a MATLAB program for a problem that utilizes a M-function. I was curious if you guys knew of any good websites that have some sample code for such problems. Also, I am somewhat familiar with programming in C++. How much does MATLAB differ from this language? Any help is...

'Schoolbook' multiplication takes O(n^2) operations. Karatsuba multiplication takes O(n^{\lg 3})\approx O(n^{1.59}) operations. The best method I know of (which is only practical for very large numbers) is O(n \log n \log\log n). Is there a known nontrivial lower bound on the complexity of...

Computational Physics can be frustrating sometimes... Just realized that my past eleven weeks of work has been entirely invalidated due to single error in my simulation inputs. Arrrg. On the upside, I think I've got the process down now, so its just a matter of rerunning everything...

M&B Journal Club: I hope this will be thread #6, if not please rename it appropriately. Date: First week of Sept 06. Topic: Computational Neuroscience Papers Papers: I will attempt to present 2(maybe 3 papers) on the topic above, all models using Neural nets. The first Paper deals with...

I will be applying to graduate school this coming winter, and I'm having difficulty deciding what field I should be directing my effort towards. My background: I have a bachelor's a physics, and my senior project was to write an N-body program that simulated galaxy collisions with the inclusion...

Are there many interesting computational physics problems out there? Are there any comet trajectories that will deviate from a standard ellipse? For some reason plotting the path of a baseball just doesn't spark my interest.

Hey, In doing a circuit simulation i want to allocate a matrix like this (c++) double S1store[3][steps+1] i get no compiling errors, but if i make steps greater then 28000 the program gives me a windows error and crashes, it runs fine on a unix system. is there a limit to the amount of...

The Computational Materials Science Group at NREL performs state-of-the-art theoretical calculations to develop the scientific basis for selection and optimization of the materials used in modern optoelectronic device applications. http://www.nrel.gov/basic_sciences/technology.cfm/tech=7...

I'm currently a second-semester student at a Penn State branch campus and am kind of at a crossroads as far as my major is concerned. I consider myself pretty talented in mathematics and am very interested in math in general (and possibly teaching at the high school level or maybe at the college...

Why is a Milk Carton an example of a nonconvex polyhedron such that the sum of the face angles around each vertex is no more than 360 degrees. - I don't know how a milk carton qualifies as a nonconvex polyhedron. isn't every face a convex polygon? Is it possible to have a polyhedron with 7...

I found this of interest at Cornell. It's worth checking out! http://www.cis.cornell.edu/cse/overview.htm and one of the readings Graduate Education for Computational Science and Engineering from the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)...

Hi everyone! I'm currently searching for good graduate computational physics programs, so if anyone can name a few, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!