Week 1: August 31 - September 4

This week we get an intensive introduction to Python and to IPython notebook, which will be our main development environment. We also start writing the functions that will be needed for the first assignment.

Introduction to MTH 337

• Syllabus
• How the class is structured
• Expectations for the class

Why Python?

• Free
• Readable
• Extensible
• Popular

Introduction to IPython Notebook

• The tool bar
• Cells
• IPython "magics": %run, %pylab, %pylab inline

Introduction to Python

• The print statement
• Numbers in Python - integers, floats, booleans
• Mathematical operations
• Variable assignment
• The import statement
• Python math module
• The dir function
• Comments
• Boolean expressions
• Conditional code - the if statement
• Loops - the while statement
• Defining functions using def

Weekly Reports

• LibreOffice
• Report structure
• Fonts and styles

Greatest Common Divisor and the Euclidean Algorithm

Quiz

There will be no quiz this week.

Assignment

There is no assignment due this week.