Syllabus
Physics 270: Introduction to computational physics 
Course objectives: This course is intended to provide the student with the basic skills needed to use computers in courses offered by the Physics department. It assumes no preparation or skills in the use of computers. It begins with instruction on how to use a microcomputer, and how to log onto the campus 'mainframe' computing system. The student is shown how to use the World Wide Web, and a browser, to access course information on the Web. Skills are developed progressively from the use of spreadsheets for graphing and problem solving, through the use of programming languages (primarily FORTRAN) for solving more complex physics problems.

Outline: Approximately half of the course time is spent learning to use spreadsheets to solve problems in Physics. Techniques are developed for solving equations of motion, for simple finite-element analysis, and for solving quantum mechanics wave-function problems. Following the introductory problems, there are a set of problems in which BASIC programming techniques are used within a spreadsheet environment. This serves as a bridge to the second half of the course, which is based on programming techniques. The second half of the course develops techniques for using FORTRAN to solve physics problems. No previous knowledge of FORTRAN is assumed.

Grading: There are a set of required problem sets, which range from one-week to three-weeks in duration. The grades on the problem sets will determine the majority of the grade. There is also a final exam, which contributes a smaller portion to the grade.

Internet: The course problem sets and other information are at http://photon.phys.uwm.edu .