BYU Physics and Astronomy

Computational Physics Laboratories

Computational physics is an essential element of a physics education.  At BYU, we have developed a series of three lab courses where students work together to solve physics problems that require computational techniques.  The lab manuals and course materials are available electronically on the following pages:

• Physics 230
• Physics 330
• Physics 430

Physics 230 is designed for sophomore physics students and teaches basic computational skills (with emphasis on symbolic methods) using Mathematica. Physics 330 is designed for juniors and focuses on ordinary differential equations, with applications in mechanics and nonlinear dynamics, using both Mathematica and Matlab. Physics 430 is a senior level course focusing on solving partial differential equations using grid methods in Matlab. A more detailed description of these courses can be found in the following article.

• Article describing these courses