All Science Fair Projects

Title: The Function of Diffusion

Objectives/Goals

The goal of my project was to design a computer program that could determine the
rate of diffusion
between solids using the Scheme programming language.

Methods/Materials

First I learned how to program using "How to Design Programs" and Dr. Scheme.
Next I designed a
program that computes first-order differential equations, and then I designed a
program that computes
second-order differential equations. Finally I started working on the diffusion
equation.

Results

The two programs that were designed both returned their expected results. The
constants in the
second-order differential equation caused the results to change.

Conclusions/Discussion

The fact that different results were obtained from the second-order differential
equation depending on the
constants means that a different diffusion constant would change the rate of
diffusion, and this should be
researched further. Also, the Improved Euler method will be researched further,
as it is a more accurate
way of solving differential equations. Because the diffusion equation is just a
complicated second-order
equation, and I successfully wrote a program that solves a second-order
differential equation, it can be
assumed that the diffusion equation can be programmed.

Summary Statement

My project is about programming the Diffusion Equation.

Help Received

Mr. Dan Anderson, my computer teacher, taught me programming skills and
beginning calculus.