COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS FOR TEACHERS

Catalog description

Prerequisites: PHY 111, PHY 112 and PHY 213 or instructor permission. Study of problems from various physics content areas using a variety of computational tools (e.g. spreadsheets, computer programming) and techniques (Newton's method, Runge-Kutta). Physical systems including harmonic oscillator with damping, gravitational force (orbits, central force problem), electric and magnetic field and potential calculations, thermal and statistical physics, motion with air friction, wave motion, quantum mechanical tunneling and scattering. Pedagogical issues associated with using computation in the high school classroom.