Course Description

In this course, we explore the use of current numerical methods that recognize new developments in computer hardware and communications. In the context of various scientific applications, our intent is to close the gap between computational techniques taught in physics, chemistry, and engineering courses and the software that confronts a practicing scientist. The three credit hours for this course comprise two 1-hour lectures plus a 3-hour laboratory session per week. Laboratory instruction will focus on assigned computer programming exercises. A CS graduate student TA will provide laboratory instruction and aid students in mastering all lab equipment and Fortran.

Specific topics that will be covered include:

• Computer arithmetic and computational errors,
• Solving linear systems of equations,
• Polynomial and piecewise polynomial interpolation,
• Quadrature and adaptive quadrature,
• Solving linear least squares problems,
• Solving nonlinear equations, and
• Solving ordinary differential equations.