From Pencils to Computers (2006)
Abstract:
Pencil and paper (PnP) theoretical physics is highly correlated with mathematical subject matter and mathematical ability on the part of the researcher. One could rationally argue that the boundaries of mathematical technique in theoretical physics prior to the widespread use of large-scale computation were defined by the themes, content, and applications of Morse and Feshbach’s classic Methods of Theoretical Physics (Morse and Feshbach, 1953). By the 1980’s this situation had changed dramatically and permanently. The era of Computational Physics (CmP) was underway, and has proceeded with exponential growth to the present. We are now far more likely to find skill sets associated with developing and applying computational models in modern theoretical physics publications than skill sets mirroring the mathematical tradecraft in Morse-Feshbach (1953). Of course, to the degree that CmP has replaced PnP, what is also implied is that the scope of problems now addressed in theoretical physics goes far beyond what analytic mathematical procedures can decisively attack. This is why computation in physics has become so important. Beyond this fact, however, there is the important observation that
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