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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
by castratikron 10y ago
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.
- santaclaus 10y ago> The Euler method is too inaccurate to be useful. You can make it as accurate as you want by shrinking the time step. :)
- drjesusphd 10y agoThat's no way to go through life.
- sonium 10y agoThis is actually not true since rounding errors will compound.
- santaclaus 10y agoSure, 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).