Ge 108: Applications of Physics to the Earth Sciences

 

Instructor: Mike Brown, mbrown@caltech.edu,  395-8423, 168 S. Mudd.

TA: Alejandro Soto, asoto@gps.caltech.edu, 154 S. Mudd.

Meets: 10:30-noon T, Th, S. Mudd classroom


Get the FINAL here.

Many of your problem sets will involve using MATLAB to obtain simple numerical solutions. Caltech has a nice site license so you can download it for free.
Click here to learn how to get MATLAB running on your computer.

 

Schedule of classes

Sept 29 Lecture 1 Oct 1 Lecture 2
Oct 6 Problem lab 1 Oct 8 Lecture 3 (PS #1 due)
Oct 13 Lecture 4 Oct 15 Problem lab 2
Oct 20 [no class] (PS #2 due) Oct 22 [no class]
Oct 27 Lecture 5 Oct 29 [no class]
Oct 3 Lecture 6 Oct 5 Problem lab 3
Oct 10 Lecture 7 (PS #3 due) Oct 12 Lecture 8
Oct 17 Problem lab 4 Oct 19 Lecture 9
Oct 17 TBD Thanksgiving TBD
Dec 1 TBD Dec 3 TBD



Lecture 1 1st order differential equations
Lecture 2 Applications of 1st order DEs. Look here for the MATLAB program to numerically solve the foxes and the rabbits problem.
Lecture 3 Heat flow.
Lecture 4 Applications of diffusion.
Lecture 5 Oscillations
Lecture 6 Forced oscillations
Lecture 7 Coupled oscillations
Lecture 8 Waves
Lecture 9 Wave propagation

 

Problem sets are due at at the begining of class T or Ths
Problem set 1. Download numeric.m (MATLAB)
Problem set 2. Download diffuse.m (MATLAB) and diffuse2D.m (MATLAB)
Problem set 3.
Problem set 4. Download f.m
Problem set 5
Problem set 6. Fun with springs.m
Problem set 7. Surf for waves.m here
Problem set 8.