Mathematical Modelling

The aim of this course is to enable you to study real-world phenomena by constructing and using simple models. This course does not involve computer programming, although we sometimes make use of existing computer programs where performing the operations by hand would be too time consuming or tedious.

This course runs in Semester 2 of the 1st year of both BSc and MPhys courses. As the course progresses, lecture notes will be made available on the VLE.

A brief outline of the course is:

1. Introduction to Mathematical Modelling
2. Dimensional analysis
3. Similitude
4. Fitting Data
5. Interpolation
6. Optimisation
7. Linear Programming
8. Difference Equations
9. Differential Equations
10. Integration
11. Randomness
12. Networks I
13. Networks II
14. Fractals I
15. Fractals II
16. Chaos I
17. Chaos II

One of my favourite parts of the course is fractals, so I've written this little javascript program to illustrate some simple ones. Reload the page to get a different one.

Your browser does not support the canvas element, so the fractal simulation cannot run. Sorry!