PHY 277: Computation for Physics and Astronomy

Fall 2011

Place and Time:

Course Web Page:

An introduction to computing on UNIX/Linux computers. Fundamentals of using UNIX/Linux to write computer programs for numerical algorithms to solve computational physics and astronomy problems. Assignments are carried out in a high-level compiler programming language such as Fortran 90 or C++ and require extensive use of SINC site computers outside the classroom. Prerequisite: PHY 125, 126, 127; or PHY 131, 132, 133, 134; or PHY 141, 142; AMS 151 or MAT 126 or 131 or 141 Advisory Prerequisite: AMS 161 or MAT 127 or 132 or 142 or 171. 3 credits.

Instructor:

Prof. Alan Calder
Email: acalder "at" mail.astro.sunysb.edu, Office: ESS 438, Phone: 632-1176

Lectures, homeworks, etc:

All lecture materials will be on Blackboard

Syllabus:

Version 1.05 Available here and on Blackboard.

Useful links for PHY 277:

The University of Utah Unix Tutorial

The University of Surrey Unix Tutorial

Unix file system tutorial

Emacs Reference Card

Vi Reference Card

Configuring the bash shell

The tar command

Opus Software Makefile Tutorial

Getting Started with LaTeX by David Wilkins

Gnuplot Tutorial

W3C Markup Validation Service

w3schools.com

Astrophysics Data System

LLNL Parallel Computing Tutorial

Applet for accessing Math Lab machines. Thanks to Prof. Marivi Fernandez-Serra!

Note that students are encouraged to submit helpful web sites to the instructor for inclusion in this list!