A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Astronomy and Astrophysics » Research
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Programming & Linear Algebra



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old November 8th 06, 06:20 PM posted to sci.astro.research
west
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 52
Default Programming & Linear Algebra

I am deeply grateful for all the help I received directing me towards the
math courses I should take in pursuing a career in Astro-physics. Since I
can not take these courses now (sophomore HS), I've borrowed some trig &
calculus books from the library and am setting aside some time each day to
study on my own. I also have purchased Shu's "The Physical Universe"
recommended by Mr. Thornburg.
One (hopefully) last request: Which computer programming courses should I
start with and then take in the future? Finally, finally: Can you recommend
a good beginning text for Linear Algebra? Thanks very much again.

bill
  #2  
Old November 9th 06, 01:06 PM posted to sci.astro.research
Oh No
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 433
Default Programming & Linear Algebra

Thus spake west
Finally, finally: Can you recommend
a good beginning text for Linear Algebra? Thanks very much again.

Unfortunately I can't make a personal recommendation as it too long ago
since I learned the subject. I had a look at a couple of books on
amazon, and felt that

Linear Algebra (Oxford Science Publications) (Paperback)
by Richard Kaye, Robert Wilson

seemed pretty good. The description says "In particular, this book would
be suitable reading for a student with no prior exposure to abstract
algebra. Although intended as a 'second course', the book is completely
self-contained and all the material usually given in a 'first course' in
presented fully in Part I,".

You may also like to look at John Baez site. http://math.ucr.edu/home/ba
ez/books.html


Regards

--
Charles Francis
substitute charles for NotI to email
  #3  
Old November 11th 06, 09:36 AM posted to sci.astro.research
Jonathan Thornburg -- remove -animal to reply
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 24
Default Programming & Linear Algebra

west wrote:
I am deeply grateful for all the help I received directing me towards the
math courses I should take in pursuing a career in Astro-physics. Since I
can not take these courses now (sophomore HS), I've borrowed some trig &
calculus books from the library and am setting aside some time each day to
study on my own.


That's great! If you can find a local math teacher who can help you
over the inevitable rough spots, and correct any conceptual problems
before they cause confusion, that would greatly ease your learning
(and probably make it a lot more fun too!).


I also have purchased Shu's "The Physical Universe"
recommended by Mr. Thornburg.
One (hopefully) last request: Which computer programming courses should I
start with and then take in the future?


Programming languages are tools, so it's useful to (eventually) learn
several of them, both for easier sharing of code with colleagues, and
so you can pick the most convenient one(s) for any given task.

Learning your *first* programming language takes a moderate amount of
work, because you need to learn a bunch of new concepts and ways of
thinking ("variables", "loops", "arrays", "assignment statements", etc),
simultaneously with the mechanics of how to express those in some
programming language. I have seen cogent arguments for starting with
a "scripting language" like Perl or Python, and also cogent arguments
for starting with a more traditional programming language like C, C++,
Java, or Fortran 90. This (choice of programming languages) is a
rather controversial topic! In practice, your choice for your first
language is likely to be set by your local environment, i.e. what
courses are conveniently available to you.

Once you know one programming language, learning another one is easy:
you already know most of the concepts, so you'll just have to learn
the mechanics of the new language. You'll also probably find that
each new language you learn gives you a slightly new set of ways of
*thinking* about programming problems.

In my experience, most scientific computation is done on Unix-flavored
systems (these days often running GNU/Linux), and the main programming
languages are Unix shells/Perl/Python for "scripting and little things",
and C, C++, and Fortran 90 for "big things". Learning at least one
of {Perl, Python} and at least one of {C, C++, Fortran 90} would be
great.

Actually using a programming language to solve a scientific problem
often gets into the domain of numerical analysis (very roughly speaking,
numerical analysis is the branch of math/computing which marries calculus
and computers). Any reasonable university physics/astronomy curriculum
will have you taking a numerical analysis course (or two or three)
fairly early on (soon after you learn calculus), so you probably don't
need to do anything special right now.

ciao,

--
-- "Jonathan Thornburg -- remove -animal to reply"
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut),
Golm, Germany, "Old Europe" http://www.aei.mpg.de/~jthorn/home.html
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-- quote by Freire / poster by Oxfam
  #4  
Old November 13th 06, 06:06 PM posted to sci.astro.research
Nicolaas Vroom
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 216
Default Programming & Linear Algebra

"Jonathan Thornburg -- remove -animal to reply"
schreef in bericht ...
In my experience, most scientific computation is done on Unix-flavored
systems (these days often running GNU/Linux), and the main programming
languages are Unix shells/Perl/Python for "scripting and little things",
and C, C++, and Fortran 90 for "big things". Learning at least one
of {Perl, Python} and at least one of {C, C++, Fortran 90} would be
great.


Please do not forget Visual Basic (and or QBasic)
as an alternative.
Visit my homepage to get some idea.

http://users.pandora.be/nicvroom/

Nicolaas Vroom

[Mod. note: quoted text trimmed -- mjh]
  #5  
Old January 14th 07, 12:12 AM posted to sci.astro.research
GE Copeland
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default Programming & Linear Algebra

On Mon, 13 Nov 06 17:06:35 GMT, "Nicolaas Vroom"
wrote:

"Jonathan Thornburg -- remove -animal to reply"
schreef in bericht ...
In my experience, most scientific computation is done on Unix-flavored
systems (these days often running GNU/Linux), and the main programming
languages are Unix shells/Perl/Python for "scripting and little things",
and C, C++, and Fortran 90 for "big things". Learning at least one
of {Perl, Python} and at least one of {C, C++, Fortran 90} would be
great.


Please do not forget Visual Basic (and or QBasic)
as an alternative.
Visit my homepage to get some idea.

http://users.pandora.be/nicvroom/

Nicolaas Vroom

[Mod. note: quoted text trimmed -- mjh]



I would second using quick basic 4.5 as a first language. It main uses
is the fact you can read it. It is a complete language and can be
learned quckly. It does run under windows machine and you can find it
on the net.
It is a starter that does not drive you nuts with syntax problems.
Later you can pick-up a linux operatings system for you machine and
there are basic languages availa blem ther while you learn c++ for
super-jobs.
Best of Luck
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Programming is a _Hard_, hard science. Bob Schmall Astronomy Misc 9 May 29th 06 03:46 AM
Four Free months of programming + NFL Sunday Ticket + a Free DVD player! News Group Poster Satellites 0 September 27th 04 02:23 PM
Programming "error" jjrobinson2 Space Shuttle 6 September 22nd 04 10:03 PM
LINEAR T7 Henry Amateur Astronomy 4 May 17th 04 07:31 PM
Space craft operating system programming language? Christopher Technology 8 December 10th 03 03:49 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:16 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.