Computational Physics: Scientific Programming with Python
What you'll learn
- Getting Started: A beginner-friendly crash course about NumPy, functions, loops, conditionals, lists, arrays & plots
- Numerical methods: Derivatives & integrals, differential equations & eigenvalue problems, interpolation & Monte Carlo methods
- Practice at Physics Problems: Moment of inertia, magnetic field of a wire, radioactive decay, harmonic oscillators, free fall, rolling balls
- Application to Advanced Problems: Chaotic systems, heat equation, 3-body problem, spaceship mission, coupled pendulums, magnetism, graphene & quantum physics
Requirements
- Software: None, I will show you how to install Python which is free.
- Programming: Previous experience is helpful but not required. We start with a 2h crash course.
- School mathematics: Knowing the basics about derivatives & integrals.
- Physics: Helpful but not required.
Description
This course is for everyone who wants to learn and get better in Python and physics.
Except for some school mathematics, no prior knowledge is required. We will start from the basics and climb the ladder up to advanced projects!
Python is an enormously powerful tool and widely used in theoretical and computational physics.
It is not difficult to use but the whole topic can be overwhelming to learn if you are on your own.
In computational physics we use numerical techniques from mathematics, such as:
Interpolation & Model fitting
Derivatives & Integrals
Differential equations
Eigenvalue problems
Monte Carlo methods
to solve problems from all areas of physics.
You are kindly invited to join this carefully prepared course that will teach you all you need to know about Python for scientific programming. It includes a crash course, quizzes, exercises, solutions and, of course, hands-on programming sessions in which we will solve real-life examples, such as
Calculating the magnetic field of a charged wire (integrals & derivatives)
Chaos & the butterfly effect (differential equations)
Heat propagation in a sample (differential equations)
Simulating (and navigating) a spaceship interacting with sun, earth and moon (differential equations)
The strange behavior of coupled oscillators (Eigenvalue problems, Fourier analysis & fitting procedure)
Ferromagnets & Antiferromagnets (Monte Carlo methods)
Special properties of graphene (Advanced science lecture about the Nobel prize winning material)
... & many more
Why me?
My name is Börge Göbel and I am a postdoc working as a scientist in theoretical physics.
I have refined my advisor skills as a tutor of Bachelor, Master and PhD students in theoretical physics and have other successful courses here on Udemy.
Especially when I started my PhD, I was impressed how easily you can solve demanding tasks with Python. I have used the program for the results in many of my publications and have recommended Python to all of my students.
“Excellent course, it is just what I was looking for: everything you need to know about Python for solving physics problems from the basics. Very well structured, full of examples and applications to real problems, template files to help you follow the classes and entertaining while instructive explanations.“ - Adrián Terrones Aragón
I hope you are excited and I kindly welcome you to our course!
Who this course is for:
- This course is for everyone: Python beginners & advanced programmers
- Everyone who likes physics and/or programming
- Science students, who want to explore a modern field of physics
- ... or who want to prepare for their computational physics exam ;-)
Instructor
- 4.7 Instructor Rating
- 4,938 Reviews
- 37,597 Students
- 11 Courses
Hi, my name is Börge, I am a theoretical physicist working in the field for more than 10 years. I have been supervising several Bachelor, Master and PhD students and I am an experienced instructor on physics, mathematics and programming-related topics and want to spark your excitement for science. I will help you to become knowledgeable and successful in the STEM fields. Understanding Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics basically guarantees you to have a successful career and to be able to make the world a better place. However, getting into these extremely fascinating topics can be frustrating: They are often taught either too loosely or with a too strong focus on the mathematics.
My all-in-one courses are exactly the courses I wish I had when I was first getting into university-level mathematics, physics & programming!
You will benefit no matter what your skill level is: from ‘interested newcomer’ to ‘experienced university student’. Each beginner friendly course (mathematical basics included) condenses more than a whole semester of university to about 10h-20h of time-efficient videos, exercises, quizzes, and real-world examples.
Join 20,000+ happy students today in one of my comprehensive 5-star courses (most of them have been added to the Udemy Business collection). I am excited to go on this journey together with you :-)
Career as a scientist
Dr. Börge Göbel is a tutor and scientist working in theoretical physics. For his post-doctoral research position in quantum physics at a German university, he has to use and refine his programming (mostly Python and Mathematica), mathematics and physics skills on a daily basis. His 35+ original research publications in the most prestigious and renowned journals (including Nature & Science publishing groups) have been cited 1,500+ times and he has collaborated with outstanding researchers (including Nobel prize laureates) from all over the world.
The secret to do research successfully is not to hole up in complicated equations but to make the difficult concepts simple and accessible – to oneself and to others :-)