This GitHub Repo contains all teaching material relevant for the Physics Immersion week of the Insight program. The aim of this week is to give you an introduction on how to use Python programming and numerical methods (part of Computational Science) to solve physics problems, starting with problems from classical mechanics and moving to solving quantum mechanics problems by the end of the week.
We assume you have a basic knowledge of calculus and classical mechanics (such as harmonic oscillations, two-body problems like the Earth-Sun problem and similar). However, a review of these topics will be provided in the pre-course assignments. Any student who does not feel confident in their knowledge of these topics after reviewing the pre-course assignments should contact the lectures (Julie Butler: butle222@msu.edu or Morten Hjorth-Jensen: hjensen@msu.edu).
We do not assume you have had any exposure to linear algebra, quantum mechanics, or Python programming. Any skills from these fields that are needed for this week will be introduced and explained in terms of more basic physics or mathematics. Python tutorials will be provided as assignments in the pre-course, but if you have a good grasp of Python, you can skip these assignments.
- Students should feel confident in their knowledge of the central features of the Python programming language including basic uses of the libraries
NumPyandMatplotlib. - Students should be able to solve basic linear algebra problems involving multiplication, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors.
- Students should be able to apply their knowledge of Python to create program which model physical systems (both classical and quantum) using numerical methods such as Velocity-Verlet or by finding eigenvalues computationally.
- Students should demonstrate a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics including the ability to solve simple quantum mechanical problems such as the infinite well and the harmonic oscillator.
- Students should be able to describe the difference between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics and be able to determine what methodology to use when encountering a new physical system. Students should also be able to demonstrate how the classical two-body problem and the classical harmonic oscillator can be extended to quantum mechanical problems.
We have a collection of three lecturers and four teaching assistants avaliable to help you this week. Learn more about our teaching staff here.
If you have any questions you can email Julie at butle222@msu.edu or Morten at hjensen@msu.edu. You can also contact all of the teaching staff and your classmates using the Slack channel. Slack is an instant messaging software used by many academic and professional teams. You can join our Slack at this link. We will use a combination of Slack and email to communicate course annoucements and materials.
- We expect that you will attend class everyday from 10am to 12pm EDT. If you cannot attend class on a day, please contact us as soon as possible we will do what we can to make sure you can catch up on the work you missed.
- Homework assignments will be given each day. They will not be collected because you are not given a grade for this course, but it is expected that you do your best to complete the assignments each day. They are important to prepare you for the next day and reinforce the material you learn. You can get help with the assignments every day after class during the office hour from 12pm to 1om EDT and members of the teaching staff will usually be avialable by email or Slack.
In order to prepare you for the Physics Immersion Week we have prepared a series of exercises on classical mechanics and Python programming. They can be found here. We will be using the knowledge gained from completing these exercises during class. If you have any trouble with the exercises, please reach out to us by Slack or email.
We will have class from 10am to 12pm Monday, June 21 through Friday, June 25. There will also be an office hour each day from 12pm to 1pm. Note that all times are EDT. The schedule for this week is available here. Please note that this schedule is flexible and is subject to change based on how each class period goes.