The questions for this week's set come in two parts; part 1 and part 2, which are due a week apart. If you're on fire, you're welcome to hand in both parts early, otherwise the usual due dates apply. UPDATE: The second part is now optional, but I highly recommend doing it. I can provide feedback, though it won't be part of passing this week. That is, try and fail without fear!

All the readings for this week are about the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations.

After reading through the first part of the assignment (but before tackling it), read Ch. 17.0 in Numerical Recipes. Note that only a certain number of pages can be read each month without a license - this number is somewhat greater than the required reading. An alternative is to read Ch 16.6 in Numerical Recipes in C

After reading through the second part of the assignment (but before tackling it), read pages 1-6 of Geometrical Numerical Integration, by E. Hairer, C. Lubich, and G. Wanner. These are easily accessible via the Amazon preview function.

If for some reason you can't access these resources online, there are hard copies in the lab. In older editions, the relevant part of Numerical Recipes is Ch 16.0. Wikipedia has a basic summary of geometric numeric techniques. If you're interested in the nitty gritty details of symplectic structure and geometric mechanics, email the TA Casey Handmer for an electronic copy of his class notes from a relevant course.