Contents of the lecture

Random numbers with non uniform distributions; Radioactive decay

- Random numbers with non uniform distributions: inverse transform method; acceptance-rejection method to generate non uniform random variates; alternative algorithms for specific distributions.

- The gaussian distribution

- The central limit theorem

- Data plotting: normal plot and log-log or semilog plots; data fitting: least-square fit, linear regression

- A simple example of stochastic simulation of an intrinsically random process: radioactive decay

- Recommended:

- See "A Survey of Computational Physics: Introductory Computational Science" by Rubin H. Landau, Manuel Jose Paez and Cristian C. Bordeianu (2008), Princeton University Press, or the older "Computational Physics" by Landau and Paez (1997)