A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
October 3, 2010 by admin
Filed under Mathematical Physics
A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
Because of its rich object-oriented features, C++ is rapidly becoming the programming language of choice for science and engineering applications. This text leads beginning and intermediate programmers step-by-step through the difficult aspects of scientific coding, providing a comprehensive survey of object-oriented methods. Numerous aspects of modern programming practice are covered, including object-oriented analysis and design tools, numerical analysis, scientific graphics, software engineer
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Review by David Yevick for A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
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This book was developed during many years of teaching scientific programming to engineers and scientists in both electrical engineering and physics courses. About 1/3 of the text is accessible to beginning programmers even at a high-school level, while the last part of the book can serve as a second-term undergraduate scientific programming course or as a reference text. While the title indicates that a major focus of the text is computational physics, the book contains problems and examples from numerous scientific and engineering disciplines and can be employed across a wide variety of course offerings.
Because of the practical difficulties faced by beginning students, a first course in scientific programming generally requires very significant personal intervention by the instructor or laboratory assistant. This book effectively removes this issue by providing a common base of free Windows software on CD-ROM that is meticulously documented in the text (the software is also available for Linux). The reader is introduced to programming through numerous assignments containing real-world technical problems. The assignments at first contain nearly the entire program to be developed; as the book develops, however, fewer code sections are provided. This method allows the user to absorb proper program structure while avoiding frustrating and confusing stylistic traps. A solution manual is made available to instructors through Cambridge University Press (see their website for errata) while the CD-ROM also contains copies of all programs presented in the text.
This book presents a compact but completely unified picture of modern programming practice as it applies to scientific programming. The fundamental, underlying principles of the C++ language and scientific programming are stressed in order to simplify retention of complex C++ syntax and of the mathematical and physical content. More involved topics in numerical analysis, scientific programming methods and C++ are presented in an intuitive and easily-understood manner. Examples of the subjects covered are: software engineering principles (UML), numerical analysis, scientific graphics programming, the Standard Template Library (STL), Monte-Carlo methods including the Metropolis and multicanonical techniques, partial differential equation solvers, calling Fortran from C++, C++ program optimization.
Review by W Boudville for A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
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This book can serve several audiences. It teaches both computational physics and the use of C++ in writing object oriented code. Clearly, if you are already know one of these topics, but not the other, then the book is a natural fit. You can concentrate on what is essentially half the book.
The more challenging task is if you are unfamiliar with both. Well, it is reasonable to assume that you know some physics, say at the first year undergraduate level. And perhaps you have done some programming, in a procedural language like Fortran or Basic.
The amount of abstractions, or rather the level of difficulty in this, is less than in a typical physics text that is explaining Maxwell’s Equations or Einstein’s Special Relativity. The physics in the book revolves around trying to compute certain numbers in an efficient manner.
While from a programming standpoint, computational physics examples are given as an important use case, to help the student grasp the OO concepts.
Review by stochasticmind for A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
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This is a very good book, the codes are clear and
written from a computational point of view. It is easy
to set up the software. I agree with the authors self
remraks except that he should wirte up some harder examples
in the end. But still, the best.
Review by Ld Seaver for A First Course in Computational Physics and Object-Oriented Programming with C++
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Knowing C++ is important if one if going to do scientific programming. I can say the book gives a broad introduction, I can’t say it was “fun”. Computational Physics is the kind of text you study then put down and do back to it rather than plowing straight through. A good overview for serious programmers.