Phys-129L Introduction to Computational Physics

Instructor: Zihang Wang, zihangwang[AT]ucsb.edu,

Lecture: TR2:00 PM-3:15 PM, Location, SSMS, 1303

Office hours, T,W,R 12:30 PM-1:30 PM, Borida 6304

TA: Dawson Lyles, dawsonlyles[AT]ucsb.edu,

Sections: M,W, 3:30 PM-4:45 PM \ T, R, 3:30 PM-4:45 PM, Location, SSMS, 1304

Office hours, M,F 2:00 PM-3:00 PM, BioEngineering building lounge

-----Final Exam-----

Location: Web 1100 Time: Tuesday, March 18, 2025 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

This is a pen-and-paper exam. Please bring a blue book. The TA and I will distribute the exam at 3:50 PM and begin at 4:00 PM, so please arrive early. You are allowed to bring a single handwritten note sheet, which the TA and I will check before the exam. I have released the practice exam, and its solution will be out on March 14, 2025.

Practice Final

Important Sites

http://localhost:8080/

Docker Platform Requirements

To get started, please visit Docker Hub
docker pull zhwangs/comp_phys:tag - Pull the image with tag (ver1)
docker pull --platform linux/arm64 zhwangs/comp_phys:tag - Pull the image with arm64 platform (e.g. Mac) with tag (ver1)
docker run --platform linux/arm64 -it zhwangs/comp_phys:tag - Run a container with arm64 platform (e.g. Mac) with tag (ver1)
http://localhost:xx80/ - Access the UI interface via TCP.

Readings

Numerical Recipes, by Press. W. et al.
Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms, by David MacKay
An Introduction to Statistical Learning, by James G. etal,
A Survey of Computational Physics by Landau, R., Paez, M-J., Bordeianu, C.
Shape Analysis by Justin Solomon
Think Bayes 2 by Allen B. Downey
Computational Physics by Mark Newman
From Python to Numpy by N. P. Rougier

Basics Commands

# bash
apt-get update && apt-get install -y  <...>  # Install packages in bash

./example.sh # run a bash script named "example.sh"

pip3 install <...>  # Install packages in Python

python3 <...>  # Run a python program.