Jeffery J. Leader's MA 435 Page

Finite Difference Methods

Finite Difference Methods is an applied course in computational science. It treats the central problem of applied mathematics--understanding the fundamental partial differential equations that describe heat conduction, diffusion, fluid flow, electromagnetism, wave phenomena, solid state physics, fields, potentials, and so on--using a computational approach. The focus will be on learning the numerics underlying how the Finite Difference Method (FDM) is used to model physical phenomena of interest. This course complements courses in finite element analysis, computational electromagnetism, and computational fluid dynamics, and can be counted toward the Computational Science Minor.

Prerequisite: Any one of MA332 (or an equivalent course, such as ME323), MA371, MA373, or MA433

Course page (syllabus and text information).

Animation of the changing temperature T(x,y,t) of a thin plate, found by solving the heat equation.

Rayleigh–Taylor instability from hydrodynamics, computed using a finite difference method.

Maintainer: leader@rose-hulman.edu.