Re: Computational Physics

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> Can the members of this list inform me of what they would think a
> course titled "Computational Physics" means and includes in terms of
> course topics, content and experiences?
>
> This would be a 2 hour a week lab at the junior-senior level course in an
> independent high school. The school has success with passing AP Calculus
> based Physics classes.

I have two comments; I hope they are useful.

Every topic I can think of which would fall into that category (which
now means "physics using computers for modelling") needs rather more
fundamental grounding than is usually found in high school courses.
The lowest level example I can think of is in Volume I of Feynman's
"Lectures on Physics". In my opinion the best things you could do
would be to introduce the students to do such things on spreadsheets.
My attitude may be colored by the fact that I am now sitting in on a
course called "computational physics" taught at the Junior level in
our university.

My second comment is this: please don't call a session in which
students sit at keyboards looking at screens a "lab". Laboratory work
involves confronting the student with Nature. Subversion of the
language is an impediment to the students' understanding this point.

Leigh