Exploring the mathematics behind camera lens apertures and f-stop ratios with a bit of help from Python.
Continue readingScientific Notation in Python
In this article I will write a simple module to display very large or very small numbers in scientific notation in a more appealing format than that used by Python.
Continue readingMathematical Symbols in Python
I often use mathematical symbols in Python code which results in me scrabbling around to find the ones I need so I decided to write a simple module to simplify the process, which I will describe in this article.
Continue readingCreating an Angle Class in Python
In this project I will write a Python class to represent angles in various units, and provide a selection of arithmetic and comparison operators.
Continue readingPlotting Mathematical Functions in Python Part 1
There is a wealth of information out there on plotting mathematical functions in Python, typically using NumPy to create a set of y values for a range of x values and plotting them with Matplotlib. In this article I will write a simple but powerful function to abstract away much of the repetitive code necessary to do this. In future articles I will show the code in use for a selection of functions.
Continue readingExploring Radioactive Decay Half-Lives in Python
In this article I will briefly explain radioactive decay and the concept of half-lives, and then go on to write Python code to illustrate the underlying mathematics.
Continue readingSquare Roots in Python part 2: Calculations
In the first part of this article I wrote code to calculate rough estimates of square roots which enable formulas which converge on accurate square root values to do so with fewer iterations. Part 1 also included code to graph estimates to compare them to accurate values.
In this second part I'll implement some of those formulas, again graphing the results alongside definitive values.
Continue readingSquare Roots in Python part 1: Estimates
Python provides us with a perfectly satisfactory method of calculating square roots, the math.sqrt() method, but in this pair of articles I will explore some of the ways square roots can actually be calculated from scratch. In this first article I will look into a few ways of calculating rough estimates which form a starting point or "seed" for the methods I'll examine in Part 2.
Continue readingExploring SI Units in Python Part 1: Base Units
The International System of Units, commonly known as the SI System, consists of seven base units for measuring quantities such as mass, time and electric current. These base units can be combined into derived units to measure a wide range of other quantities.
In this article I will develop a Python class to represent base unit values and associated methods. In a future article I will extend the project to handle derived units.
Continue readingExploring Set Theory with Python
There is plenty of information around on Python's set data structure but it usually approaches the topic from a programming perspective. In this article I will look at Python sets from the mathematical point of view.
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