What are some recommended physics books for learning with code?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on finding books that teach physics with a focus on applying concepts through programming, particularly in MATLAB. The original poster emphasizes the importance of visualizing and manipulating variables to understand physical concepts, seeking resources that include extensive examples and accompanying code. Recommendations include a computational physics text that, while written in Fortran, introduces pseudocode that can be translated to MATLAB. Another suggested book is "Computational Physics" by Mark Newman, which, despite using Python, is noted for its clarity. Additionally, a resource on numerical methods related to mechanics of shells is mentioned, featuring source codes in C/C++. The key takeaway is the need for educational materials that bridge theoretical physics with practical coding applications.
Steve Drake
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I am looking for recommendations of books that teach physics, with an emphasis on solving real-world problems with code.

I find I can only really fully grasp a concept if I can actually program it and visualize it in MATLAB, change variables and see what effect that has on the results.

So would anyone have recommendations of books that are accompanied with computer code? My language of choice is MATLAB but I can translate anything really to MATLAB, so the focus would be on lots of examples and thorough code.

It would be great if it went through all the important physical mathematics such as ODE's PDE's and their applications eg Electromag.. I just find book after book with the same equations written down but have no idea how to actually use them.

Thanks
 
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I can only recommend the text I used for computational physics. Our language was Matlab as well, but the text was written in Fortran. That doesn't particularly matter though, since they introduce the pseudocode first:

http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~hisao/book/
 
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Pythagorean said:
I can only recommend the text I used for computational physics. Our language was Matlab as well, but the text was written in Fortran. That doesn't particularly matter though, since they introduce the pseudocode first:

http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~hisao/book/

Thanks, I had a look at the first few examples and got them working in MATLAB. This is definitely the kind of thing I am after. I will pick up this book so I can actually understand what's going on now lol.

Any more suggestions along the lines of this would be great, thanks.
 
Steve Drake said:
I am looking for recommendations of books that teach physics, with an emphasis on solving real-world problems with code.

I find I can only really fully grasp a concept if I can actually program it and visualize it in MATLAB, change variables and see what effect that has on the results.

So would anyone have recommendations of books that are accompanied with computer code? My language of choice is MATLAB but I can translate anything really to MATLAB, so the focus would be on lots of examples and thorough code.

It would be great if it went through all the important physical mathematics such as ODE's PDE's and their applications eg Electromag.. I just find book after book with the same equations written down but have no idea how to actually use them.

Thanks

Here is a book in numerical methods related to mechanics of shells (with lots of commented ready-to-use source codes in C/C++ on applied CD-ROM):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0646594044/?tag=pfamazon01-20
 
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