1. Introduction

• Necessary skills for this course
  • course prerequisites (PHYS 305, PHYS 321)
  • access to the system!
  • familiarity with Linux
  • programming in C/C++
  
  
• "Physics" topics to be covered
  • electric fields and equipotentials
  • distribution of charge in a conductor
  • Laplace's equation
  • fields due to moving charges
  • Maxwell's equations
  
  
• "Computation" topics to be covered
  • calculation of field lines and equipotential curves (contours)
  • random numbers
  • Monte-Carlo methods
  • Fast Fourier Transforms
  • solution of partial differential equations
    - relaxation methods: Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel
    - finite differencing in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions

• Electric field lines

• A simple program to compute the electrical potential energy due to a collection of point charges.

• Exercise 1.1:  Compute the potential (phi) and the x-component of the electric field (Ex) at the point (y,y) due to the dipole defined by

  	nq = 2
  	q1 =  1.e-6,  x1 = -1,  y1 = 0
  	q2 = -1.e-6,  x2 =  1,  y2 = 0
  	

  Write your program using arrays to store the charges and their positions, so that the number of charges can be easily modified. Plot phi and Ex as functions of y for -10 < y < 10 in steps of 0.1. [solution]

• Exercise 1.2:  Compute the field line through the point (2,1) due to the dipole defined in Exercise 1. [solution]

• Exercise 1.3:  Compute the field-line pattern due to the above dipole (choosing starting points as discussed in class. [solution]

  To draw the field line(s), arrange for your program to print out (on a single line) the values of X and Y obtained after each step in the field-line calculation. Then use plot_data or gpl to display the data:

• Homework #1