A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering) - Hardcover

Hans-petter-langtangen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3642302920 ISBN 13: 9783642302923

Publisher: Springer, 2012

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.

About this title

About the Author

Hans Petter Langtangen is a professor of computer science at the University of Oslo. He has formely been a professor of mechanics and is now the director of a Norwegian Center of Excellence: "Center for Biomedical Computing", at Simula Research Laboratory. Langtangen has published over 100 scientific publications and written several books, including papers and a book on Python's potential for scientific computing. He has also developed open source and commercial software systems for computational sciences.

Review

From the reviews of the third edition:

“A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python simultaneously introduces us to the Python programming language and its use in scientific computing. ... The reader will learn good Python programming style from the Primer. The book will often present a direct solution using only the most basic language features ... . Those of us who have learned scientific programming in Python ‘on the streets’ could be a little jealous of students who have the opportunity to take a course out of Langtangen’s Primer.” (John D. Cook, The Mathematical Association of America, September, 2011)

“This voluminous book offers an excellent and detailed explanation of programming paradigms and mathematical lexicons. ... The author includes many programs, explanations, and exercises. ... This book will prove very useful for mathematicians and statisticians. ... I definitely recommend this book to university students for a six-month course or classroom discussions. If someone wants to quickly learn Python concepts, it can be used as a reference.” (Naga Narayanaswamy, ACM Computing Reviews, February, 2013)

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 3642302920
• ISBN 13: 9783642302923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 798