Cambridge University Press putational Physics.pdf

putational
Physics
Andi Klein and Alexander Godunov
Los Alamos National Laboratory
and Old Dominion University
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Information on this title: 0521828628
© Cambridge University Press 2006
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isbn-10 0-511-16650-8 eBook (Adobe Reader)
isbn-13 978-0-521-82862-8 hardback
isbn-10 0-521-82862-7 hardback
isbn-13 978-0-521-53562-5
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Contents
Preface page ix
1 Introduction 1
The need puters in science 1
What putational physics? 1
Linux and C++ 2
2 Basics 5
puter hardware 5
Software 7
How does it work? 9
3 Short introduction to Linux 11
Getting started and logging in 11
Getting help 12
The filesystem, or where is everything? 12
Moving around in your system 13
Listing your directory 14
Creating your own files 15
Doing some work 17
Good programming 19
Machine representation and precision 20
Exercises 23
4 Interpolation 25
Lagrange interpolation 27
Neville’s algorithm 29
Linear interpolation 30
Polynomial interpolation 31
v
vi Contents
Cubic spline 33
Rational function interpolation 3