Computers and computation are extremely important components of physics and should be integral parts of a physicist’s education. Furthermore, computational physics is reshaping the way calculations are made in all areas of physics, and Computational skills are fundamental to every students working in the field.
Intended for the physics and engineering students who have completed the introductory physics course, A First Course in Computational Physics, Second Edition covers the different types of computational problems using MATLAB with exercises developed around problems of physical interest. Topics such as root finding, Newton-Cotes integration, and ordinary differential equations are included and presented in the context of physics problems.
About the Authors
Paul L. DeVries received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently a Professor of Physics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is actively involved with liberal education and the Honors program, and regularly teaches courses in Astronomy, and the History of Astronomy, to liberal arts students. However, his primary interests are in computational physics, including image analysis, and in teaching the art of computational physics to the next generation of physicists.
Javier E. Hasbun has a PhD in physics from the State University of New York at Albany. He is a professor of physics at the University of West Georgia where he has been teaching physics for the past 15 years. He is a member of the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and the Georgia Academy of Science. He has over 30 publications in professional journals and over 70 presentations dealing with teaching and/or research in physics.
