Python Physics Course
Setting up
This pdf file is lesson zero. It demonstrates step by step, in great detail, how to install Python on our system, and the very many ways that we can launch and use Python. It shows the default REPL interpreter, and the IPython terminal. It shows the default IDE called IDLE, and briefly talks about Pycharm (most popular Python IDE). It goes a little deep into interacting with the Jupyter Notebook, which is the preferred usage of Python among most scientists and engineers, and also the primary medium of this course.
Prologue
Humans evolved spoken language to be able to communicate information and complex ideas between each other. All languages evolve over time. We wouldn't be able to understand English from a hundred years ago. Through spoken language and written script we can convey stories, personal experiences, teachings, poems, metaphors, instructions, decisions, and meanings to others. All without having to know anything about grammar. Knowing grammar we come to know the language from a technical standpoint.
Mathematics on the other hand is a language that humans came up with, using which we can convey information about quantities and measures. We have come a long way since we needed to count the sheep we were herding. Maths influences our daily lives directly or indirectly. We often need to do simple calculations like convert dollars to rupees, feet to metres, we might need to solve a simple equation, or even sometimes send a human to space, these are possible because of Maths. Unlike spoken language, in order to do mathematics, we need to first learn the rules, the meanings behind those concepts, and then practice various examples and use cases to get better at it. Eventually some of those concepts become second nature and then we can solve our problems naturally. Unlike language that appeared spontaneously, Mathematics was borne out of a need to quantify various concepts and mechanisms within a rigid framework of rules. This makes it the best suited language for Physics.
Physics was borne out of a need to understand the natural world around us. Among many things it helps us understand why tree leaves are green, why the sky is blue, how it rains, what is lightning. Because of Physics, we know that we live on a giant ball that we call Earth, that goes around a giant fire ball of Hydrogen that we call Sun. Physics helped us invent the telescope, microscope, engines, electricity, computer, and discover atoms, gravity, light, sound, energy, and force. Physics helps us predict and manipulate the world around us.
Like Mathematics, the invention of the computer was also borne out of a need. Mathematics is particularly hard to do for humans, some of the simple to the abstract concepts can be solved using pen and paper, but calculations tend to become very complex and very time consuming, very quickly. Even Physics for that matter; we can't solve for millions of atoms in a crystal to predict its electronic properties by hand. Thus, humans invented a machine that could crunch large amounts of numbers really fast. They had to invent new languages with specially designed syntax and grammar, that these machines could understand, to instruct these machines, to inform them of the rules and procedures with which to manipulate the numbers we provide. These languages are called programming languages, and the art of instructing the computer of these rules using any of these languages, is called computer programming. Computers have since accelerated our technological advancement exponentially, and has facilitated the emergence of innumerable other technologies like, cryptography, internet, robotics, and computer games to name a few.