The purpose of this web page is to provide information about scientific computing and using the Computational Physics Laboratory. All CC students, faculty, and staff are allowed access to the lab. The Lab has a key punch lock. Contact Kate Carlton for the access code.

Using the Computational Physics Lab

Logging In

See your instructor or the physics paraprofessional for the username and password for the computers.

Printing to the Computing Lab Printer

To access the Scientific Computing Lab's printer, search your available printers for "OLI2-BW". When printing from the command line use "OLI2_BW" as the printer name (so your command would look like this: lpr -P OLI2_BW filename)

Useful Links

Python Programming

Anaconda Python Installation Instructions

Anaconda provides a complete programming environment for the Python programming language. If installing on a Mac the its easiest to use the Anaconda for OS X graphical install.

Python Scientific Computing Toolbox

This website describes how to use Python and the SciPy package to analyze scientific data, and use computers to solve problems that are too difficult or impossible to solve analytically.

Python Documentation

This links to the documentation on the python.org website. Python is an open-source interpreted language. The tutorial linked on the main documentation page is very good if somewhat lengthy.

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

A very clear and helpful computer science text using Python as the programming language. Best of all, it's free and online through the Open Book Project.

Mac OS X and Unix

Mac Basics

This is actually a collection of tutorials produced by Apple for new users of Mac OS X.

Mac OS X Unix Tutorial for Beginners

Tutorial on the basics of using Unix command line interface on Macs running OS X.

Mathematica

Hands-on Start to Mathematica

A a collections of video tutorials that cover the basics of using Mathematica.

LaTeX

LaTeX is an easy-to-use typesetting program that is very good at producing scientific and mathematical documents.

Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf Online Student Plan