Splash Biography

What can computers do to advance physics? Researchers at Berkeley use computational tools to study the properties of exotic materials, to aid us in the discovery of new particles in nature, and to simulate experimental results before devoting large amounts of resources to it. With the power of our computers, we can solve equations more efficiently than pen and paper and visualize things not in front of our eyes. We will introduce you to graphing and simulations in Python and give you more examples to try at home.

What can computers do? You can use them as calculators, to build websites, or to solve physics problems! We will learn how they help physicists analyze large data sets and uncover nature’s laws. With the power of our computers, we can visualize motion in graphs better than pen and paper. We will introduce you to cool physics simulations in class (finding best-fit lines and simulating pendulum motion, to name a few) and give you a chance to try more at home.

This course will introduce students to the fascinating intersection of computation and physical sciences. Students will explore how computers can be used to solve complex physical problems and analyze experimental data.