Читать книгу Computation in Science (Second Edition) - Konrad Hinsen - Страница 17

Computation has its roots in numbers and arithmetic, a story that is told by Georges Ifrah in The universal History of Numbers [12].

Video courses explaining basic arithmetic are provided by the Khan Academy. It is instructive to follow them with an eye on the algorithmic symbol-processing aspect of each technique.

The use of computation for understanding has been emphasized in the context of physics by Sussman and Wisdom [13]. They developed an original approach to teaching classical mechanics by means of computation [14], which is available online, as is complementary material from a corresponding MIT course. The authors used the same approach in a course on differential geometry [15], available online as well.

The Bootstrap project uses games programming for teaching mathematical concepts to students in the 12–16 year age range. An example of computing as a teaching aid in university-level mathematics has been described by Ionescu and Jansson [16].

Computer programming is also starting to be integrated into science curricula because of its utility for understanding. See the textbook by Langtangen [17] for an example.

A very accessible introduction to the ideas of digital physics is given by Stephen Wolfram in his essay ‘What is ultimately possible in physics?’ [18].