Fundamentals of Numerics

The aims of the laboratory are:

• To compile and run the simple java programs described in lectures
• To complete web page setup
• To look at a particle system applet

The exercises are:

1. Firstly, go to file:///usr/local/pkg/j2sdk/docs/index.html and bookmark this page. Then scroll down to the reference to the API, and follow the link.
2. During lectures you saw several small Java programs and their output. Here we are going to run these and verify their outputs.
3. The programs are as follows:
   • floattest.java
   • overunder.java
   • epstest.java
4. Download the above three programs and compile and run them.
5. For floattest, use the Java Documentation to try to determine to meaning of all the bits in the bit string that is returned.
6. For overunder, using the knowledge you gained above, try to explain the bit patterns you wuld get just before you overflow, or underflow.
7. For epstest, the notes shows that two numbers are required, and the first is always 1.0. If you changed that number, how would that affect the eps result?
8. Modify one of these programs to force all the remaining special conditions mentioned on page 2-10 of the notes.
9. Look up the Java Documentation to find out how numeric exceptions are handled, then modify overunder to detect and handle over/under flows with a print statement that says "Gotcha!!"
10. On Andrew's Computational Science website you will find a particle system applet. At this stage you will need to put a symlink to the java plug-in in your ~/.mozilla directory to get the Java plugin to work. Instructions in laboratory.

Last modified: $Date: 2004/07/19 16:44:27 $