The general Runge-Kutta algorithm is one of a few algorithms for solving first order ordinary differential equations. Below is a specific implementation for solving equations of motion and other second order ODEs for physics simulations, amongst other things. Continue reading
I’m getting ready for starting a course in computational physics, and so, ignoring the fact I’m meant to be revising for an exam this Monday, I thought I’d prepare for the more exciting of the two. I’ve always wanted to code this little physics model ever since I saw it on one of those JavaScript snippet websites back when dial-up was fast and people downloaded mp3s one at a time. Those were the days.
Well, I never made it mainly because I didn’t understand how. Could this be the best thing my physics degree has taught me thus far? Continue reading
If you’re a part-time developer or you don’t use your computer exclusively for web development, it makes sense for you not slowing things down with Apache and MySql every time you boot up.
Aside from grinning and bearing it, one option to solve this would be to start these services when you need them from the command line. It’s a fairly simple sudo service apache2 start in most Linux distributions, or the new sudo start apache2 way for Ubuntu.
An alternative, which has its own advantages, is to install your services in a virtual machine and load up the VM when you’re working.
Actually, it’s perfectly possible to use this set-up for more than just single-person local development, and many developers do this.
One great advantage a virtualized development environment has is that it Continue reading
Just a quick one here.
It’s pushing a month since I last checked in, and not for want of desire. I’ve not been entirely negligent though: I’ve been busy putting together a few typed up solutions to both foundational and pretty challenging/rare problems in statistical physics.
My motivation is two-fold: a) to get extremely familiar with the material, what with exams just around the corner and b) for a few of the problems, the solutions are nearly impossible to do or to find help online for if you can’t do them.
Continue reading
Playing around with my WordPress installation, I noticed when searching for certain terms, the search results returned were case-sensitive, even though according to the documentation, neither WordPress nor MySql are, by default. Continue reading
Finally, after around six months of meaning to, I’ve got round to designing and launching my blog! So, by means of introduction, here’s my token first post, a little about me, and the design and background of the blog.
< -- That's me right there. I'm currently studying an MPhys in Physics at the University of Manchester, though during this, my third year, I'm studying at the Universität Heidelberg, Germany on the Erasmus programme (till Summer 2013, if you’re reading this at a later date).
Although I do really enjoy Physics, and find the most mundane of equations fascinating, truth be told my heart has moved elsewhere. My main interests now lie in web and software development. Network and web app security also strongly appeal to my rebellious streak.
Enough about me; about the blog: Continue reading