Using notebooks#

Introduction#

At the advent of Calculus two mathematicians are credited with its formalisation/invention:

  • Isaac Newton

  • Gottfried Leibniz

One of the differences between the approaches taken by Newton and Leibniz is their notation. Newton denoted the derivative of a function \(f\) as:

\[Df\]

Leibniz denoted the derivative with the now more commonly used notation: $\(\frac{df}{dx}\)$

The mathematics itself is unchanged: what changes is the language/notation used to communicate it. Similarly when giving instructions through code to a computer there are a number of notations, more commonly called languages available. This book will be using a language called Python. Python was originally designed as a teaching language but it is now popular both in academia and in industry.

Important

In this chapter you will cover:

  • Installing the specific distribution of Python on your computer.

  • Using something called a Jupyter notebook to write and run Python code.

  • Writing descriptive notes using markdown{.markdown} and LaTeX (pronounced Lay-tech).