A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python

✍ Scribed by Hans Petter Langtangen (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 736
• Series: Texts in Computational Science and Engineering 6
• Edition: 2ed
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The book serves as a first introduction to computer programming of scientific applications, using the high-level Python language. The exposition is example- and problem-oriented, where the applications are taken from mathematics, numerical calculus, statistics, physics, biology, and finance. The book teaches "Matlab-style" and procedural programming as well as object-oriented programming. High school mathematics is a required background, and it is advantageous to study classical and numerical one-variable calculus in parallel with reading this book. Besides learning how to program computers, the reader will also learn how to solve mathematical problems, arising in various branches of science and engineering, with the aid of numerical methods and programming. By blending programming, mathematics and scientific applications, the book lays a solid foundation for practicing computational science.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxix
Computing with Formulas....Pages 1-49
Loops and Lists....Pages 51-89
Functions and Branching....Pages 91-127
Input Data and Error Handling....Pages 129-176
Array Computing and Curve Plotting....Pages 177-241
Files, Strings, and Dictionaries....Pages 243-304
Introduction to Classes....Pages 305-374
Random Numbers and Simple Games....Pages 375-436
Object-Oriented Programming....Pages 437-496
Back Matter....Pages 497-706

✦ Subjects

Computational Science and Engineering;Programming Techniques;Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems;Mathematics of Computing;Numerical and Computational Physics