Physics and Astronomy

Here you will find instructions and worksheets for both the first year and third year computational physics workshops. You will be using a mathematical package called MAPLE (developed at the University of Waterloo in Canada, hence the name). In both cases the emphasis is on solving physics problems rather than on learning the dark mysteries of a new piece of software

Getting Started

You need to check that MAPLE is installed on your CFS pc. Go to the startup menu at the bottom left of the screen and then click on the programs menu. If MAPLE is installed it will appear here. If not you need to click on the installable software item on the startup menu. From there, double click on departmental software and then on department of mathematics and computer science. There you will see a menu item labelled Install Maple 6.02 . Double click on this item and follow the instructions. It only takes 15 seconds to install. If you have any problems, please ask the tutor.

First Year Laboratory

Over the next two afternoons you will both learn the basics of MAPLE and then use the package to solve some physics problems. MAPLE is extremely versatile, and is part of standard university software so you can make use of it at any time during your degree.

Double click on firstyear.mws and either run it immediately or save the worksheet to your home space. Remember to save your work frequently. There is nothing more annoying then discovering an hour's worth of work has disappeared if the pc hangs.

You do not have to record anything in your lab book for this session. Simply answer the questions on the worksheet (use boldface type to make it easier to mark). At the conclusion of the second afternoon, email the worksheet to Dr Gordon Stewart. You will not finish the entire sheet but should at least get to exercise 8.

Third Year Laboratory

You have detailed instructions in your laboratory handout. You are not required to write anything in your lab book. Instead, everything is to be written in your worksheets. These will be assessed during the sessions. Worksheets completed during the last few sessions will not be able to be assessed in this way. Instead you can email them to Dr Gordon Stewart. As you come to do each worksheet simply double click on it and download it to your own workspace. Don't forget to save your work frequently.

• worksheet1.mws
• worksheet2.mws
• worksheet3.mws

For the following worksheets to work correctly you must download both the worksheet itself and an accompanying text file. Make sure you download both files to the same directory . Then open the worksheet by clicking on its icon as it appears in your directory.

• worksheet4.mws and session4.txt
• worksheet5.mws and session5.txt
• worksheet6.mws and session6.txt
• worksheet7.mws and session7.txt
• worksheet8.mws and session8.txt

Rouen Students

For the very brave amongst you here is a worksheet on networks.

• network_exercise2.mws