Advanced Computer Simulation (VS1) (U02680)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : PHY-3-VCompSim

This is a practical course which develops the techniques of computer simulation in physics through the exploration of specific examples. It consists of an introduction to Monte Carlo integration, a study of the numerical integration of simple dynamical systems, and a look at some non-numerical computational methods for computer symbolic algebra. The course is taught through a series of two-hour supervised practical classes in the Computational Physics Laboratory. The course is continuously assessed: there is no Degree Examination.

Entry Requirements

? This course is only available to part year visiting students.

? This course is a variant of the following course : U01368

? Pre-requisites : Year 2 Physics, Mathematics, including Computer Simulation or Computer Science, or equivalent. Prior Java experience is essential.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Undergraduate (School of Physics), (School of Physics, Schedule Q)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	16:10	17:00	KB

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

After completing this course students should:
1) be familiar with the properties of floating point arithmetic, rounding errors, errors due to algorithmic
approximations, basic (Euler)numerical integration methods and simple higher-order integrators (leapfrog);
2) have learnt about the principles of Monte Carlo integration, including importance sampling, simple
methods of generating pseudo random numbers for specified distributions, but not Markov Chain methods;
3) have an understanding of the techniques used to implement computer algebra systems, including the use of
recursion, linked lists, garbage collection, and markup languages such as MathML;
4) have a deeper understanding of the utility and
limitations of derived classes, interfaces, and inheritance in object-oriented programming languages (specifically Java);
5) be familiar with the use of documentation generator tools (specifically JavaDoc).