Book Image

Scientific Computing with Python 3

By : Claus Führer, Jan Erik Solem, Olivier Verdier
Book Image

Scientific Computing with Python 3

By: Claus Führer, Jan Erik Solem, Olivier Verdier

Overview of this book

Python can be used for more than just general-purpose programming. It is a free, open source language and environment that has tremendous potential for use within the domain of scientific computing. This book presents Python in tight connection with mathematical applications and demonstrates how to use various concepts in Python for computing purposes, including examples with the latest version of Python 3. Python is an effective tool to use when coupling scientific computing and mathematics and this book will teach you how to use it for linear algebra, arrays, plotting, iterating, functions, polynomials, and much more.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Scientific Computing with Python 3
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Acknowledgement
Preface
References

Basics


In mathematics, a function is written as a map that uniquely assigns an element y from the range R to every element x from the domain D.

This is expressed by f : D → R

Alternatively, when considering particular elements x and y, one writes f : x → y

Here, f is called the name of the function and f(x) is its value when applied to x. Here, x is sometimes called the argument of f. Let's first look at an example before considering functions in Python.

For example, D = ℝ x ℝ  and y = f(x1, x2) = x1 - x2 . This function maps two real numbers to their difference.

In mathematics, functions can have numbers, vectors, matrices, and even other functions as arguments. Here is an example of a function with mixed arguments: 

.

In this case, a number is returned. When working with functions, we have to distinguish between two different steps:

  • The definition of the function
  • The evaluation of the function, that is, the computation of f(x) for a given value of x

The first step is done once, while the second...