I want to find the motion of an electron in a spatially varying magnetic field using finite element analysis, and have some way of estimating the error (especially in the path length). I imagine somewhere someone has written up an algorithim that does this, but I haven't had much luck googling...
To add, the least dense material in the WD at the surface burns to Si (denser burning leads to heavier nuclei, mostly Ni56). So not only is Si the product of the burning, but its concentrated at the surface, and so is a component of the photosphere right from the beginning.
There are two basic approaches, the modern "analytic" one that starts with the real number plane and derives results (as in the book quaser mentions), and the more classical approach using geometric axioms that Euclid and most high school classes use. Personally I think the latter is more fun...