![]() ![]() In week 3 they learn how to do animations using the Euler-Kromer method in Mathematica and using VPython. In subsequent weeks, being forced to use both platforms goes away and they can choose which platform to use.įigure 1 shows their choices for those tasks in which they could choose. Each of those weeks there is a third task (1.3 and 2.3 in Figure 1), where they build on those initial tasks and can choose to use either Python or Mathematica. Examples include importing data and manipulating the resulting arrays/lists to do some plotting, and basic iterative (for/do) loops. The general format of the course is that, for the first three weeks, the students are given very similar tasks that they must complete using Python and Mathematica. But some students did the opposite and took advantage of the opportunity to become much more familiar with a new-to-them platform and tried to do as much of their work as possible using the new platform. Second, there were students coming into the course with some previous experience using Mathematica or a strong computing background in Java or C++ and those students usually gravitated toward Mathematica or Python, respectively. First, there is a small additional bias toward Mathematica because two of the tasks are more Mathematica-friendly and only one of the tasks is more Python-friendly, as will be discussed. ![]() From a total of 297 choices, they chose Mathematica 62.6 ± 2.8% (standard error) of the time. ![]() This post looks at the choices made by the students on a per task basis and a per student basis. The course was structured so that students would get some initial exposure to both Python and Mathematica for the purposes of physics-related computational tasks, and then as the course went on they would be given more and more opportunities to choose between the two platforms when completing a task. This past year I taught two sections (fall and summer) of Computational Physics at UFV, which is quite a rare thing to happen at a school where we typically run 3rd and 4th year courses every other year. Python in my Computational Physics course Posted: Septem| Author: Joss Ives | Filed under: Computational Physics | 4 Comments
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