PC1134Mathematical Methods in Physics I Semester II, 2001-2002 |
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PC1134 focus on the mathematical methods and techniques directly relevant to physics and engineering applications and therefore the module is most relevant to physics and engineering students. Students from other faculties may take this module as a cross faculty module if they are interested, provide they have enough physics background to understand the problems. Students who are interested only in mathematics and do not have background in physics probably should take a mathematics module instead of PC1134. How different is mathematical methods in physics from relevant mathematical modules?Both PC1134 and relevant math modules teach students mathematical methods and techniques. However, PC1134 focus on applications of these methods and techniques in physics, while a typical mathematical module may emphasize abstract theorems and general applications. In other words, mathematical methods in physics may be less rigorous compared to similar math modules but it is more practical. In addition to the basics methods and techniques, students will also learn how to use these mathematical tools to model and solve physical problems. Error analysis was not covered in PC1134 in the past. Why it is included now?Recently, the department realized that many physics students lack basic training in error analysis. As error analysis is very important in analysing experimental results and is a very basic technique for scientists and engineers, the department decided to use 2-3 hours of PC1134 lectures to make up for this. Will error analysis be covered in the exam?This will be decided later. Most likely it will be covered in the first term test and may be also in the final exam. Is it necessary to buy the text book?You are encouraged to buy the text book. The slides for each lecture will be made available at the web site (under lecture). Beside those, there will be no additional lecture notes distributed. Tutorial assignments will also come from the book. The same book is also used as a text book for Mathematical Methods in Physics III. Which chapters of the text book will be covered?
The following chapters/topics of the main text book will be covered: Assessment of PC1134 consists of continuous assessment (which include tutorials and term tests) and the final examination. In the last academic year, the weightage of continuous assessment was 30% and the exam was 70%. Problem with downloading pdf file of lecture slidesIf you encouter problems downloading the pdf file of lecture slides, please right click the link (pdf) and choose the "save target as" option. This should work for Internet Explorer. Reference for error analysisSome of you asked for a "good" reference book for error analysis. I finally found some time to browse through some books in the Science Library and would like to recommend the following book to you. Compare to the others, this book is relatively modern (You may notice that most of the books on error analysis are very old.) and give a clear description of the concepts.
Experimentation: An Introduction to Measurement Theory and
Experiment Design, 3rd Ed. If you are interested in browsing through other books for topics on error analysis, I would like to suggest that you should check out books in the categories of "colleage laboratory physics", "physics experiments" and other similar titles. Many of such books include a chapter or a section on error analysis at the beginning. You may find that an entire book on error analysis is too advanced and not very practical. In the science library, probably you should check for such titles in the QC section. |