ERIC Number: EJ1214911
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Jul
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-9120
EISSN: N/A
Numerical Methods as an Introduction to Calculus
French, A.; Cullerne, J. P.; Kanchanasakdichai, O.
Physics Education, v54 n4 Article 045009 Jul 2019
This paper develops the ideas of "The Pedagogical Power of Context: Iterative Calculus Methods and the Epidemiology of Eyam" (French "et al." 2018 "J. Phys. Educ."), where we considered the application of the Euler method to solve epidemiological problems. Our purpose was to convey some examples of school level work in numerical methods that can provide useful visualisations to aid in comprehension and to incentivise the acquisition of skills in calculus. We recommend that the modern pre-university student of the physical sciences would do well to develop the precursors to coding, and learn the basics of modelling using spreadsheets in tandem with analytical methods that dominate contemporary schemes of work. In the present paper, we consider how the first-order Euler (Press "et al." 2003 "Numerical Recipes in C++: the Art of Scientific Computing" 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp 712-55) iterative method may be extended to provide a useful platform to embark on introductory work in more accurate Verlet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlet_integration (Accessed: 2 September 2018)) techniques, particularly with applications to the solution of second order ordinary differential equations.
Descriptors: Science Instruction, Physics, Visualization, Calculus, High School Students, Secondary School Science, Spreadsheets, Computation, Science Experiments, Problem Solving
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A