Re:Intro to Computational Physics
by castratikron on Friday December 09, 2016 @10:38AM
(#13139293)
I didn't even take a computational physics course as part of my physics undergrad, and I still learned about the 2D Ising model, the Monte Carlo method (which I implemented for a project), and solving ODEs with the Runge Kutta method. The Euler method is too inaccurate to be useful. The only thing it might be good for is teaching about numerical integration.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Intro to Computational Physics
by santaclaus on Friday December 09, 2016 @01:34PM
(#13140708)
> The Euler method is too inaccurate to be useful.
You can make it as accurate as you want by shrinking the time step. :)
Re:Intro to Computational Physics
by drjesusphd on Friday December 09, 2016 @02:29PM
(#13141124)
That's no way to go through life.
This is actually not true since rounding errors will compound.
Re:Intro to Computational Physics
by santaclaus on Friday December 09, 2016 @05:30PM
(#13142432)
Sure, in IEEE 754! But to call the various explicit variants of Euler useless is a bit off. Symplectic Euler is quite nice in certain applications. Hell, Newton derived a number of theorems by reasoning about explicit Euler discretizations (usually geometrically).