Skip to main content Skip to local navigation
Christopher Bergevin
Home » Computational Methods (PHYS 2030)

Computational Methods (PHYS 2030)

York University

Winter 2018 – Course Website

Basic Information 

  • Course Description: The symbolic and numeric computing environments provided by Matlab are used to solve problems. in mechanics and electromagnetism. Two lectures (1.5 hours each) and three laboratory hours every week. One term. Three credits. Prerequisites: SC/PHYS 1010 6.00 or a minimum grade of C in SC/PHYS 1410 6.00 or SC/PHYS 1420 6.00; One of LE/CSE 1020 3.00, LE/CSE 1540 3.00; SC/MATH 1014 3.00 or equivalent. Co-requisite: SC/MATH 2015 3.00 or equivalent, SC/MATH 2271. 
  • Location & Time: MWF 11:30-12:30 (CLH M) AND Drop-in labs M 2:30-3:30 and W 3:30-4:30 (Ross S110) 
  • Course Syllabus (includes course logistics):  here (pdf) 
  • Instructor:  Christopher Bergevin
    Office: Petrie 240 
    Email: cberge [AT] yorku.ca 
    Office Hours: TBD and by appointment  
    Phone: 416-736-2100 ext.33730 
  • TAs: See syllabus 
  • Text  Basic Concepts in Computational Physics by Stickler BA and & Schachinger E (Springer, 2014) 
    → Via YorkU, you can download a softcopy of this text via this link

Updates and useful bits 

  • [2018.03.29] There will be a review session scheduled to help you start preparing for the final exam (which is scheduled for April 9th). The review session will take place in the Gauss lab next Wednesday (4/4) from 3:30-5:30. You are strongly encouraged to attend!
  • [2018.03.14] As you may have noted, there has been no assigned reading for the Fourier section of 2030. That is chiefly because the text (Stickler and Schachinger) do not even cover Fourier analysis at all(!?!). Nonetheless, there are plenty of decent refs to use as a starting point available online. One of these can be accessed here (courtesy of Agilent).
  • [2018.02.28] Final exam date is now determined: Monday April 9th at 9 AM (Note: Classes end on April 6th, so this is very soon after that!)
  • [2018.02.05] This link re a short read on quantum computing might be of some general interest….
  • [2018.02.05] Remember that the 2030 midterm will take place in class on Friday 2/9. Note that it will NOT in in the regular class room, but instead in Curtis G (CLH G). Plan to arrive as early as possible so to make best/full use of the 50 min. exam period. Please note that course policies re exams as laid out in the syllabus. Also, there will be no in-class lecture on Wednesday 2/7 (instead there will be an extended review session in the afternoon in the Gauss lab run by the TA, Chris J.; that starts at 3:30 on 2/5) nor on Monday 2/12. Regular lectures will resume 2/14 following the midterm. Good luck!
  • [2018.01.31] A reasonable request(s) was made and I’m inclined to try to be helpful: there will be an extension on HW3 such that it is now due on Friday 2/2.
  • [2018.01.26] Keep in mind that we have an upcoming midterm exam on Friday 2/9 during the regularly scheduled class time. As of this moment, it is scheduled to take place in Curtis G (CLH G). In short, any material covered in the class notes below up until 2/5 is fair game for the exam. To help prepare and give you a flavor for the exams, here is the W17 midterm. Note that topics were rearranged a bit between 2017 and 2018, so the overlap is not exact. But at least you have a (rough) sense for the style/flavor of the exam. You are allowed a single regular-sized page double-sided formula sheet which you must turn with your exam. You can put anything you want on that sheet.
  • [2018.01.26] Apologies for the cancelled class on 1/24. Was quite a bit under the weather. And still am a bit. Nonetheless, we will have class today as usual. I may just be a bit (relatively) subdued…. 😉
  • [2018.01.10] There was some confusion re the drop-in lab (my fault!). Apologies. We will aim to start proper come Monday 1/15. In the meantime, check out this link and follow through the steps there so you can get card access to the lab. In the meantime, I’ll make sure the lab administrators know we are coming and update here with any salient bits. Thanks for your patience as we get this up and running.  
  • [2018.01.08] The drop-in labs will start Wednesday 1/10. Students can show up today, but Wednesday will be the first day the TA will be there. BTW, our TA for the semester is Chris James (cljames@yorku.ca).  
  • [2018.01.05] First day of class. Welcome to PHYS 2030! 
  • Note that for all assignments, you should write (and hand in a copy of) your own code. It is okay to look at and utilize the example codes provided here (or from fellow students), but you must write your own version of code (as indicated in the course syllabus). Also in order to receive full credit, you must provide sufficient (but concise) explanation as to how you arrived at your answer. 
  • Here are some links to resources that might be useful: 
    • Cody
    • Lecture notes from a NYU Polytechnic course
    • Coursera class on scientific computing
    • Lecture notes from YorkU CSE 1541 (W14, courtesy of Prof. Burton Ma)
  • Guide to get Matlab running remotely (via York’s internal server). Guide to help get you started with plotting in Matlab. Lastly, here is link to archived materials from EECS 1541 W2014 (thanks to Prof. Burton Ma). 

Class Notes 

  • 2018.01.05 – Introduction and review 
    • Book reading: Stickler ch.1.1-1.5
    • Slides
  • 2017.01.08 – Numerical differentiation 
  • 2018.01.10 – Numerical integration 
  • 2018.01.12 – Differential equations I – Introduction
    • Book reading: Stickler ch.4.1-4.3, 5.1
    • Slides
  • 2018.01.15 – Differential equations II – Euler’s Method
  • 2018.01.17 – Differential equations III – Runge-Kutta
  • 2018.01.19 – Differential equations IV – Error, Built-in solvers, Higher order systems
  • 2018.01.22 – Differential equations V – Systems of equations, Higher order ODEs; Intro. to DAQ
  • 2018.01.24 – CLASS CANCELLED 
  • 2018.01.26 – DAQ 
    • Reading: This link has some helpful general background
    • Slides
  • 2018.01.29 – Visualization 
  • 2018.01.31 – Linear systems I – Introduction and Motivations 
  • 2018.02.02 – Linear systems II – Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, Linearizing nonlinear systems
  • 2018.02.05 – Regression I – Deplot, Linear Regression
  • 2018.02.07 – Review 
    • Details to emerge…. 
  • 2018.02.09 – Midterm 
    • Details to emerge…. 
  • 2018.02.14 – Regression II – Linear Regression 
  • 2018.02.16 – Regression III – Multiple & Nonlinear Regression 
  • 2018.02.26 – Regression IV – Nonparametric Regression 
    • Slides
    • Example codes: loess (zipped folder w/ the relevant bits) 
  • 2018.02.28 – Nonlinear systems I – Intro 
  • 2018.03.02 – Nonlinear systems II – Fractals, Complex #s 
  • 2018.03.05 – Nonlinear systems III – Chaos, Period doubling 
  • 2018.03.07 – Fourier I – Introduction 
    • Slides
    • Potentially useful reference
    • A very useful/interesting reference can be found here and here
    • Example codes: EXspectrogram.m (makes a spectrogram of a .wav file; the two .wav files used in the slides can be downloaded here and here) and 2D_Fourier (zipped folder containing relevant pieces for 2-D Fourier demonstration) 
  • 2018.03.09 – Fourier II – Mathematical background 
  • 2018.03.12 – Fourier III – Computational background 
    • Slides
    • Link to a webpage describing one means to make ‘photo mosaics’
    • Example codes: EXbuildImpulse (zipped folder containing relevant pieces to build up an impulse from the Fourier components) and EXspecREP3 (zipped folder containing relevant pieces to to fiddle with a variety of 1-D discrete Fourier transform properties)
  • 2018.03.14 – Fourier IV – Discrete Transforms 
    • Slides
    • Example codes: EXquantizeF.m (demonstrates windowing and the effects of ‘quantizing’ frequency)
  • 2018.03.16 – Fourier V – Wrapping up…. 
    • Slides
    • As you may have noted, there has been no assigned reading for the Fourier section of 2030. That is chiefly because the text (Stickler and Schachinger) do not even cover Fourier analysis at all(!?!). Nonetheless, there are plenty of decent refs to use as a starting point available online. One of these can be accessed here (courtesy of Agilent).
  • 2018.03.19 – Convolutions I – 
    • Slides
    • Example codes: EXconvolution1.m (demonstrates how two simple waveforms are convolved; you’ll also need this), EXconvolution2.m (demonstrates convolving a sampled sinusoid with an impulse), EXsharpenImage.m (simple code to demonstrate 2-D convolution in spatial domain within context of image processing)
  • 2018.03.21 – Convolutions II – 
  • 2018.03.23 – Convolutions III – 
  • 2018.03.26 – Convolutions IV (+ Averaging) 
  • 2018.03.28 – Monte carlo I 
    • Slides
    • Example codes: EXestimatePI.m (demonstrates how to estimate pi using a random # generator), EXrandomNum1.m and EXrandomNum2.m (two simple/clunky/underachieving random # generator algorithms), EXintegrateMC1.m (demonstrates integration using two different Monte carlo approaches), and EXgaussian1 (demonstrates how to build up a Gaussian distribution from a uniform distribution; also allows for a nonlinear regression to fit the appropriate function, but also requires this and this)
  • 2018.03.30 – No Class (Good Friday) 
  • 2018.04.02 – Monte carlo II 
  • 2018.04.04 – Monte Carlo III – 
  • 2018.04.06 – Course summary, Harmonic oscillator revisted 

HW Assignments 

Homework should be handed in as a hard copy before the start of class.