Physics 20 Reading List #3

1. On the floating-point representation of numerical values

When you use numerical tools, it is important that you have a good understanding of the basic representation of numbers within computers, and on the effect that arithmetic operations have on the precision of this representation. Start by reading the discussion in Numerical Recipes, take a detour to contemplate a few catastrophic instances of roundoff error, then go on to read about the dangers of computer arithmetic.

2. C++ classes and object-oriented programming

This assignment (which will span two weeks) will introduce the concept of objects in programming. Just as a 'double' or an 'int' represents a floating-point or integer number, you can define new types that represent more complicated objects. In C++, an object is implemented in terms of a new user-defined type called a class. You should read about classes in this section of a C++ tutorial. Another place to look is here.

To learn more about object-oriented programming in general, see this rather complete article in the Wikipedia (follow your whim in following hyperlinks). Read also C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup's What is "Object-Oriented" Programming.