Document Type
Report
Source Publication Title
Technical Report 205
Abstract
Physics is characterized by conservation laws and by symmetry [1]. Unfortunately, the application of numerical methodology in approximating solutions of initial value problems usually does not preserve either of these invariants. In this sense, the use of a computer destroys the physics of a dynamical model. We will show here how to conserve total energy when solving the nonlinear initial value problem [see pdf for notation] on a computer. Moreover, the energy conserved will be exactly that of (1.1), not a new "energy" which is defined by the numerical method (see, e.g., Langdon [5]). Two distinctly different methods will be developed, one of which is completely conservative and symmetric, the other of which reveals how to convert any numerical method to an energy conserving one.
Disciplines
Mathematics | Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Publication Date
7-1-1983
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Greenspan, Donald, "Conserving Numerical Methods for x = f(x)" (1983). Mathematics Technical Papers. 309.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/math_technicalpapers/309