Physics 104C
Mathematical methods of physics

[For information on Physics 104A, go here.]

Course information

Instructor: Rena Zieve
Office: 243 Physics/Geology, 752-2510
Office Hours: 9:30-10:30 Monday, 9-10 Tuesday, or whenever you can find me
E-mail: zieve@physics.ucdavis.edu
 
Grader: Yi Cai
Office Hours:   6-7 PM Monday, Phy/Geo 434
 
Textbook: Boas, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences, third edition
  McQuarrie, Mathematical Methods for Scientists and Engineers
Prerequisite: Physics 104A. (Physics 104B is not required.)
Grading: Problem sets 20%; Midterm 30%; Final 50%.
 
Problem sets: Due in class. I will hand out solutions sets one class meeting later; late problem sets turned in before then will receive half credit.
Midterm: May 6 (changed from May 8 to avoid 115A midterm)
Final: Saturday June 7, 3:30 PM.
 

Assignments

Problem Set 1 -- due Tuesday April 8
Problem Set 2 with my C++ Fourier transform code -- due Tuesday April 15
Problem Set 3 with my data for problem 1 -- due Tuesday April 22
[Note: I updated the Fourier transform code so it reads in data from the file. Just download the program and data file, saving the data as hw3signal.dat, and then compile. Also, with 80000 points the program takes about 25 minutes to run on my computer. Here's where the Nln N fast Fourier transform algorithm would be nice compared to my N^2 one....]
Problem Set 4 -- due Tuesday April 29
Problem Set 5 -- due THURSDAY May 8
Problem Set 6 -- due Tuesday May 13
Problem Set 7 -- due Tuesday May 20
Problem Set 8 -- due Tuesday May 27
Problem Set 9 -- due Thursday June 5 (NO LATE HW ACCEPTED) -- Skip problem 5!

Handouts

Course Info and Syllabus

Answer Set 1
Answer Set 2
Answer Set 3
Answer Set 4
Answer Set 5
Answer Set 6
Answer Set 7
Answer Set 8
Answer Set 9

Practice Midterm
Answers to Practice Midterm
Midterm
Midterm Answers

Practice Final
Answers to Practice Final
Final Exam
Answers to Final Exam

Comments

Problem set 7: mistake on solution set to question 7 (now fixed online); the solution originally used 2 N's and 3 P's in the second box, rather than the other way around.

Problem set 9: skip problem 5; I haven't covered that material yet.

Final Exam

You can see your exam and course grades now. I'd also like to share one student's answer to the extra credit, which cracked me up: "integral(cos x/sqrt(x)) = O.J. Simpson."