Physics Through the Computer

The programs Mathematica and Maple, systems for doing mathematics on the computer, are used extensively in the Introductory Physics sequence. A series of exercises explores physics topics through Mathematica and Maple, teaching some basic computer skills along with (hopefully) the relationship between physics and the mathematical language that can describe it.
Below are a selection of the assignments used in this sequence (in pdf format), along with the solution notebooks. These are designed to be 1-3 hour assignments for small groups of students (~3 people) to work on. Much of this is still under development. Some of the files may not available, as students are currently working on these assignments. Requests for these files can be made directly to me via e-mail.

The pdf files can be read using Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free program. The notebooks are text files that Mathematica can read on any platform (Mac, Windows, Sun, etc.) To use these files:

  1. Select the file you want and click the "Solutions" button. Your browser will start to download the text file.
  2. Depending on your browser, you may be asked to get a "plug-in". Ignore this.
  3. Save the document where you can find it.
  4. Launch Mathematica.
  5. Choose "Open", then find the file you just saved.

* Note: The latest version of Internet Explorer does not treat these files properly and will save it with the name "file_from_list.acgi".



Mechanics
Assignment Description
Introductory Example An example notebook demonstrating how to use organize foramat and annotate Physics Through Mathematica notebooks.
The Vulture Explore one dimension kinematics through the flight of a hovering vulture.
Bumper Cars Simulating elastic and inelastic collisions to illustrate conservation of momentum.
Drunken Eagle Two dimensional kinematics through the eyes of a saturday night reveler.
The Bee And three dimensional kinematics using the trajectory of a bee.
Kinetic Equations Practice with Mathematica algebraic manipulations to derive the one dimensional kinematic equations.
Newton's Laws Use Mathematica to solve force equations.
The Janitor Find the minimum force required to push a crate across a floor.
Field Goal! Find the minium force required by the kicker to make the field goal.
Lift-Off! A look at the conservation of energy for gravitation, both near the earth and far away.
Just Passing Through What does the earth look like if you were to pass by at near the speed of light?
Rocket Scientist A look at satelite orbits and Newton's universal law of gravitation.
Fatal Attraction More realistic planetary orbits with three bodies.

 

Waves and Oscillations
Assignment Description
Seasick Using Mathematica's animation capabilities explore traveling waves.
Surf's Up! Colliding traveling wave trains and standing waves.
Sound Mix The basics of sound waves: beats, amplitude modulation and harmonics.
Electronic Music? What makes up sound waves? How difficult is it to reproduce the sound of say, a trumpet, on the computer?
Destroying Sound Fourier analysis to see what makes up sound waves.
Lissajous Figures Animations of Lissajous figures.
Chaos Dynamical chaos and the logistic map.
Fractals How to get Mathematica to generate simple fractals.
Mandelbrot Man Generate the world's most famous fractal.

Electricity & Magnetism
Assignment Description
Electricity in the Air Tracing electric field lines from a point charge.
All Charged Up Tracing electric field lines from multiple charges. Some reference to "Electricity in the Air" is made.
You got Potential! Electric potential contours near charges.
Animal Magnetism Tracing magnetic field lines near a single current carrying wire.
Totally Wired Tracing magnetic field lines near multiple current carrying wires. Some reference is made to "Animal Magnetism".
Recharge, Discharge Time behavior of a DC RC circuit.
Electric Oscillations Time behavior of a DC RLC circuit.
I See the Light! Ray tracing of simple optical systems.
Under the Microscope Multi-lens systems and optical instruments.

Supplemental Packages
Assignment Description
CollisionFunction.nb The collision function required by Bumper Cars.
GravityFunction.nb The gravitational function required by Fatal Attraction.
Bellsound.nb Sampled bell sound for Destroying Sound.
Lenses.nb Several functions required by I See the Light! and Under the Microscope.
Efield.nb Several functions required by Electricity in the Air and All Charged Up.
Bfield.nb Several functions required by Animal Magnetism and Totally Wired.
MultiPlotRC.nb Functions to make multiple plots in Recharge, Discharge.
MultiPlotRCL.nb Functions to make multiple plots in Electric Oscillations.