Fading Glory

Next month, Lord willing, I start the second year of my PhD adventure in Computational Engineering.  "Adventure" is a good way to describe it, especially in my superannuated state.  In the midst of getting the coursework started last fall (yes, Europeans, sad to say we have coursework with PhD programmes) we had a "freshman" orientation. …

Error Function for an Hermite Polynomial

Our goal is to demonstrate that, for the Hermite polynomial $latex H_{2n+1}(x)=\sum_{j=0}^{n}f(x_{j})H_{j}(x)+\sum_{j=0}^{n}f'(x_{j})\hat{H}_{j}(x) $ where $latex H_{j}(x)=[1-2(x-x_{j})L'_{j}(x_{j})]L_{j}^{2}(x) $ $latex \hat{H}_{j}(x)=(x-x_{j})L_{j}^{2}(x) $ the error function is given by the equation $latex f(x)-H_{2n+1}(x)=\frac{f^{\left(2n+2\right)}\left(\eta\left(x\right)\right)}{\left(2n+2\right)!}\overset{n}{\underset{j=0}{\prod}}\left(x-x_{j}\right)^{2} $ where $latex f\in C^{2n+2}[a,b] $ Let us begin by considering a point $latex \hat{x}\in[a,b]$ where $latex \hat{x}\neq x_{j}$, i.e., it is not equal to …

Stability of Back Substitution for Matrix Systems

The objective is to show that back substitution is backward stable.  Consider the system $latex Rx=c $ where $latex R$ is an upper triangular $latex m\times m$ matrix and $latex x,c$ are $latex m$ column vectors. For a $latex 3\times3$ matrix system, this would look like: $latex \left[\begin{array}{ccc} r_{1,1} & r_{1,2} & r_{1,3}\\ 0 & …

Numerical Integration of a Function in a Two-Dimensional Space, and Its Solution with Conjugate Gradient

The purpose of this piece is to document the numerical integration of a function in a two-dimensional space using the conjugate gradient method. Basic Problem Statement and Closed Form Solution The boundary value problem is as follows: $latex {\frac{\partial^{2}}{\partial{x}^{2}}}u(x,y)+{\frac{\partial^{2}}{\partial{y}^{2}}}u(x,y)=-5\, y\sin(x)\sin(2\, y)+4\,\sin(x)\cos(2\, y) $ where $latex u(x,0)=0 $ $latex u(x,\pi)=0 $ $latex u(0,y)=0 $ $latex u(\pi,y)=0 …

Solving a Third-Order Differential Equation Using Simple Shooting and Regula Falsi

The object of this is to solve the differential equation $latex {\frac{d^{3}}{d{x}^{3}}}y(x)-\mu\,\left(1-\left(y(x)\right)^{2}\right){\frac{d^{2}}{d{x}^{2}}}y(x)+2\,\mu\, y(x)\left({\frac{d}{dx}}y(x)\right)^{2}+{\frac{d}{dx}}y(x)=0 $ for the following boundary conditions and parameters: $latex \mu=\frac{1}{2}$ $latex y\left(0\right)=0$ $latex {\frac{d}{dx}}y(0)=\frac{1}{2}$ $latex y\left(2\right)=1$ Conventional wisdom would indicate that, because of the high order of the derivatives, this problem cannot be solved using a scalar implementation of simple shooting. However, …

A Geologic View of Old Florida and its Coral Reefs

While reading Grabau's 1913 Principles of Stratigraphy, I came across this fascinating description of the geology of Florida and its coral reefs.  This is for the most part a summary of expeditions in the early 1850's by two of this country's pioneering geologists: Louis Agassiz and Joseph LeConte.  In addition to the outline of the …

An American Story for the Fourth of July

Generally speaking I stop this time of year and commemorate an event of which you, the reader of this blog, are the beneficiary (?). On 1 July 1997 I uploaded the pages of my first website, called then The Wave Equation Page for Piling and now vulcanhammer.net. I duly editorialised the tenth anniversary of that …

We Really Don't Need to Make a Religion Out of Science

This from the "godfather of global warming", among other things: Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion. “It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions …

Carbon Dioxide and Climate Change: An Old View

This, from A.W. Grabau's 1913 classic Principles of Stratigraphy: The chief agents in retaining the sun's heat within the earth's atmosphere are the carbon dioxide and the water vapor, which act as thermal blankets. It has been estimated by Arrhenius (2) that if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere were increased 2.5 to 3 …

The Most Potent Virus on Iranian Computers

It isn't Stuxnet or even Flame, but... The malware known as 'Flame,' that was described by the analysts who discovered it as a super-cyberweapon, is actually a tool for cyberespionage that has been running inside Iranian data centers and labs for as long as five years without being discovered or causing significant damage. Contrast that …

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