Cornell University

Department of Physics

Phys 480/680, Astro 690 January 22, 2007

Computational Physics, Spring 2007

Problem Set # 1

(Due Wed January 31)

Agenda and readings:

Readings marked NR are from Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing, 2$^{\mathrm nd}$ edition (in C). Readings marked LN are from the course lecture notes to be found at http://www.muchomas.lassp.cornell.edu/P480 .

• Lec 1 01/23 (Tue): Course overview; Introduction to density functional theory.
  Reading: LN ``Overview of quantum mechanics ...'': 1, 2, 3.1-3.2

• Lec 2 01/25 (Thu): Dimensional analysis; overview of numerical integration, mid-point tule, trapezoidal rule.
  Reading: LN: ``Overview of quantum mechanics ...'': 3.3, 5''; ``Numerical Integration ...'' 1-2; NR 4.0-4.2.

• Lec 3 01/30 (Tue): Trapezoidal rule (contd); Richardson extrapolation; Simpson's rule; method of numerical change of variables, change of variables for infinite domains
  Reading: LN: ``Numerical Integration ...'' 3-5

• Lec 4 02/01: (Thu): Spherical symmetry in atoms, Poisson's equation; Standard form for ODE's
  Reading: NR 16.0-16.1.

• Lab 1 02/01: Digit-shift tests; errors for $\int_0^1 \sqrt{x} \, dx$ and integrals of periodic functions, IEEE arithmetic, care for limiting cases

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