"Python is a computer programming language that is rapidly gaining popularity throughout the sciences. A Student's Guide to Python for Physical Modeling aims to help you, the student, teach yourself enough of the Python programming language to get started with physical modeling. You will learn how to install an open-source Python programming environment and use it to accomplish many common scientific computing tasks: importing, exporting, and visualizing data; numerical analysis; and simulation. No prior programming experience is assumed."--

A fully updated tutorial on the basics of the Python programming language for science students Python is a computer programming language that has gained popularity throughout the sciences. This fully updated second edition of A Student's Guide to Python for Physical Modeling aims to help you, the student, teach yourself enough of the Python programming language to get started with physical modeling. You will learn how to install an open-source Python programming environment and use it to accomplish many common scientific computing tasks: importing, exporting, and visualizing data; numerical analysis; and simulation. No prior programming experience is assumed. This guide introduces a wide range of useful tools, including: Basic Python programming and scripting Numerical arrays Two- and three-dimensional graphics Animation Monte Carlo simulations Numerical methods, including solving ordinary differential equations Image processing Numerous code samples and exercises—with solutions—illustrate new ideas as they are introduced. This guide also includes supplemental online resources: code samples, data sets, tutorials, and more. This edition includes new material on symbolic calculations with SymPy, an introduction to Python libraries for data science and machine learning (pandas and sklearn), and a primer on Python classes and object-oriented programming. A new appendix also introduces command line tools and version control with Git.

This advanced undergraduate textbook presents a new approach to teaching mathematical methods for scientists and engineers. It provides a practical, pedagogical introduction to utilizing Python in Mathematical and Computational Methods courses. Both analytical and computational examples are integrated from its start. Each chapter concludes with a set of problems designed to help students hone their skills in mathematical techniques, computer programming, and numerical analysis. The book places less emphasis on mathematical proofs, and more emphasis on how to use computers for both symbolic and numerical calculations. It contains 182 extensively documented coding examples, based on topics that students will encounter in their advanced courses in Mechanics, Electronics, Optics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics etc. An introductory chapter gives students a crash course in Python programming and the most often used libraries (SymPy, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib). This is followed by chapters dedicated to differentiation, integration, vectors and multiple integration techniques. The next group of chapters covers complex numbers, matrices, vector analysis and vector spaces. Extensive chapters cover ordinary and partial differential equations, followed by chapters on nonlinear systems and on the analysis of experimental data using linear and nonlinear regression techniques, Fourier transforms, binomial and Gaussian distributions. The book is accompanied by a dedicated GitHub website, which contains all codes from the book in the form of ready to run Jupyter notebooks. A detailed solutions manual is also available for instructors using the textbook in their courses. Key Features: A unique teaching approach which merges mathematical methods and the Python programming skills which physicists and engineering students need in their courses Uses examples and models from physical and engineering systems, to motivate the mathematics being taught Students learn to solve scientific problems in three different ways: traditional pen-and-paper methods, using scientific numerical techniques with NumPy and SciPy, and using Symbolic Python (SymPy).

Modeling and Simulation in Python teaches readers how to analyze real-world scenarios using the Python programming language, requiring no more than a background in high school math. Modeling and Simulation in Python is a thorough but easy-to-follow introduction to physical modeling—that is, the art of describing and simulating real-world systems. Readers are guided through modeling things like world population growth, infectious disease, bungee jumping, baseball flight trajectories, celestial mechanics, and more while simultaneously developing a strong understanding of fundamental programming concepts like loops, vectors, and functions. Clear and concise, with a focus on learning by doing, the author spares the reader abstract, theoretical complexities and gets right to hands-on examples that show how to produce useful models and simulations.

All students taking laboratory courses within the physical sciences and engineering will benefit from this book, whilst researchers will find it an invaluable reference. This concise, practical guide brings the reader up-to-speed on the proper handling and presentation of scientific data and its inaccuracies. It covers all the vital topics with practical guidelines, computer programs (in Python), and recipes for handling experimental errors and reporting experimental data. In addition to the essentials, it also provides further background material for advanced readers who want to understand how the methods work. Plenty of examples, exercises and solutions are provided to aid and test understanding, whilst useful data, tables and formulas are compiled in a handy section for easy reference.