DCU PHY1055 Numerical Methods Computational Experiments

This page contains online Git Content for DCU's PHY1055 lab. It is intended for use with the content on Loop and is not intended to stand alone.

Introduction to Computational Experiments

Welcome to 3rd year and to the computational labs. These labs work similarly to the physical experiments you will be doing in the lab in the following ways. * You must be prepared for the lab in advance by reading up on the theory. In these experiments, this theory is in Loop Workbooks on the Loop page under the buttons marked “Background Information.” As you work through the background workbooks, you will see instructions indicating when you are ready to carry out specific experiments. * You will work on the experiments by following the instructions in the lab manual. The lab manuals for these experiments are google documents which can be accessed through the link marked “Lab Instructions.” * Deliverable submissions for these experiments are a lab report for weeks 2 and 3 combined, a lab report for week 4, and a joint project report for weeks 5 and 6 combined. These are available on the Loop page under the heading “Submission Points.” * Lab reports follow the same template as those for physical experiments: you must include background, methods, results and discussion. * Academic Staff members will be available to give hands-on support during the main lab sessions. Online assistance is available via Zoom on request. Email the module coordinator for more information. * Students may help one another with their work, but should not copy one another’s work directly.

Before you work on the specific programs for this lab, familiarise yourself again with the use of the python environment of your choice (spyder, jupyter, pycharm etc.). For the first project in this lab you’ll need to be able to assign variables, define functions, while or for loops, print characters onto the console or store them into an array or a file, as well as plot basic graphs onto the screen and into files to be used in your report.

I would strongly recommend that you make use of GitHub for storing your code by following the tutorial in the Online Content section of the Loop page. This tutorial has two parts, and both must be completed by the start of the lab on week 6. I would suggest that you start early, as knowing how to use GitHub will allow you to store, share and publish your code and reference it later. It is also an essential part of many lines of work, including scientific research.