A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python

✍ Scribed by Hans Petter Langtangen (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 832
• Series: Texts in Computational Science and Engineering 6
• Edition: 3rd
• 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-XXXII
Computing with Formulas....Pages 1-48
Loops and Lists....Pages 49-86
Functions and Branching....Pages 87-135
Input Data and Error Handling....Pages 137-186
Array Computing and Curve Plotting....Pages 187-256
Files, Strings, and Dictionaries....Pages 257-339
Introduction to Classes....Pages 341-412
Random Numbers and Simple Games....Pages 413-481
Object-Oriented Programming....Pages 483-556
Back Matter....Pages 557-798

✦ Subjects

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