The only thing you need to turn in is your modified version of the program in exercise 4 and your answers to the two questions there. Just turn in a sheet of paper with your program and answers.
You may be interested in looking at the Instant Hacking introduction to Python as a good but short introduction to the language. I've listed it on the Python Resources page.
Install Python: Go to http://vpython.org/download.html and download the packages needed for your platform. On windows there are files to download to your hard disk.Python-2.3.exe and VPython-2003-10-05.exe
These two files are programs you can execute on your computer to install Python and the VPython extensions. As noted on the download page, you should install Python first and you should be sure to let it install itself at the suggested place on your hardrive (C:\Python23).Verify Python is installed properly: Start up the development tool called "IDLE". It should be visible in Windows either as a shortcut on the desktop or in the Start menu (In the CAL look under Program Files->Development Tools->Python->IDLE). Try typing in the following short Python program from the lecture (or Cut & Paste). Remember the indention is important. Python doesn't care how much you indent the body of the 'for' loop but you must indent both of statements the same amount. Run the program either from the menu (Run->Run Module) or by hitting the F5 key.
for t in range(11):
x = 2 + 3*t
print t,x
Verify VPython works properly: Try the following program which should draw a nice figure when executed. You can rotate and zoom the figure by dragging mouse on it with the right and middle buttons respectively. Try changing the values of numbers and see what happens.
from visual import *
mything = curve(radius=1)
angle=0;
radius=20;
while angle<=18.1*pi:
x=radius*cos(angle)
y=radius*sin(angle)
z=radius*sin((11/9.)*angle)
angle = angle + pi/10
red =1+sin(pi/2+angle)/2
green=1+sin(3*pi/2+angle)/2
blue =1+sin(angle)/2
mything.append(pos=(x,y,z),color=(red,green,blue))
rate(30) #control the drawing speed
Doing physics in Python: The following program is similar to one shown in class. It prints a table of the displacements of a particle in uniform motion at several instants in time. This version uses a 'while' loop. Its slightly different than those we've seen before. The method we have seen before computes position x for any time t with a function ( x = f(t) = x0 + vt). This program computes how far the particle should move each time interval (Δx) and adds that to the particle's previous position. See if you can modify this program to make it simulate an object moving with uniform acceleration of -1 meter per second per second. Recall that uniform acceleration means that during each time interval (Δt) the velocity changes by a constant amount. Use your program to answer these questions:
from visual import *
x = 0 # starting position
v = 5 # v is velocity in m/s
t = 0 # starting time in seconds
dt = 1 # delta t, the change in time
while t<=10 :
print t,x
x = x + v*dt
t = t + dt
#-----------------------------------------------
# Uniform Acceleration - computes displacement of a particle undergoing uniform
# acceleration in one dimension.
# Author: Barry Tolnas
# Created: 1/7/04
#-----------------------------------------------
x = 0 # starting position
v = 5 # v is velocity in m/s
a = -1 # a is the acceleration in m/s/s
t = 0 # starting time in seconds
dt = 1 # delta t, the change in time
while t<=20 :
print t,x
x = x + v*dt
v = v + a*dt
t = t + dt