Fall 2006: 6.084 The Art of Approximation in Science and Engineering

How far can birds (and 747's) fly without eating? Why are hummingbirds tiny? How is neutron-star crust like jello? How fast do tidal waves travel? How much power does the human heart require? ...

Fall 2006 course. Expected to be offered again in Fall 2007. See you then!

MWF 1, Room 4-265

Course description. A short version was taught in January 2006 during IAP. Here are the student comments from that course.

Readings

Reading Memo due
Introductory physics: The new scholasticism 2006-10-20 (Friday)
Ch 1. Divide and conquer 2006-09-11 (Monday)

Syllabus

Problems

Problem set 5, due Wednesday 1 November.

Problem set 4: Comment on the two pages handed out from Young and Freedman, on air resistance; due Wednesday 11 October.

Problem set 3, due Wednesday 27 September.

Problem set 2, due Monday 18 September.

Problem set 1, due Friday 15 September.

Other materials

Buckingham's original paper (1914) about dimensional analysis, presenting the famous Buckingham Pi theorem.


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