This listing is only a guide to what you might consider doing for your semester project in PHYS 220. You'll note that these projects are mostly ODE-based problems, and that's because you've spent the better part of the first half of the course studying the numerical solution of ODEs. Feel free to branch out in to other topics, but remember, a physics investigation should be at the heart of every project. Guidance for the project proposal is available via the link here.

Potential Topics include (but are certainly not limited to):

• adaptive rk2/4 comparison to Euler or rk2/4 techniques (applied to a physics problem)
• central force law variations: F_r = -kr^α (stability of orbits, etc.)
• "Bender-Bouncer" problem from AJP
• ray tracing in stratified media
• golf ball dynamics
• chaos in the Duffing oscillator
• motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field
• harmonic oscillator variations: F_x = -kx^α (periods as a function of amplitude, etc.)