Python and Matplotlib Essentials for Scientists and Engineers

by Matt A. Wood

This book provides an introduction to the core features of the Python programming language and Matplotlib plotting routings for scientists and engineers (or students of either discipline) who want to use Python™ to analyse data, simulate physical processes, and render publication-quality plots. No previous programming experience is needed before reading the first page. Readers will learn the core features of the Python programming language in under a day. They will be able to immediately use Python to implement codes that solve their own problems and make beautiful plots and animations. Python code is extremely fast to prototype, allowing users to achieve results quickly and accurately. The examples within the book are available for download at the companion website pythonessentials.com. Python and Matplotlib Essentials for Scientists and Engineers is accessible for motivated high-school students, but will likely be most useful for undergraduate and graduate students as well as working professionals who have some background with the basic mathematical concepts. This book is intended for technical people who want to get things done.

150 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2015

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

This "book", as with a lot of technical literature, started off life as a set of lecture notes. Unfortunately, it's still a set of lecture notes, not a book: there's no index, the pagination resets at the beginning of each chapter and there's simply not enough information or illustration given. This is illustrated by the amount of time I've spent looking things up on-line. The point of having a book (for me) was to not have to keep switching windows and doing Google searches so much. I don't see it working well as an introduction to programming in general or to Python in particular, except as regards Chapter 2, about how to deal with the bewildering array of possible Python downloads, versions, development environments, bells and whistles. I've got another book on Python which is much bigger. It cost me more, so I'm hoping there is both more info in it and a more professional approach to book design.

[Aanallein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This "book" will get you up-and-running with numpy and matplotlib. However, you can get going quicker by checking out the matplotlib online documentation. This book does not go into very much depth about either numpy or matplotlib and serves as an introduction that just scratches the surfaces of these two excellent tools. That being said, it's a little long for what it accomplishes.