Getting started

Installation

physics_utils can be installed straight from PyPI using pip, like so:

python3 -m pip install physics-utils

Usage

At the center of this package is the MeasuredData class, which represents a data point with uncertainty. Most of the features in this package will use and expect MeasuredData objects for inputs and outputs. They can be quickly imported from either physics_utils or physics_utils.data, but due to their prominence the prior is prefered. API reference for them, however, is found under the physics_utils.data section.

Here’s an example using MeasuredData to perform a quick calculation with uncertainty:

from physics_utils import MeasuredData

# we recorded 5 seconds, however our timer only goes up to the tenth of a second
# thus the reading error of 0.1
time = MeasuredData(5, 0.1) 
# measured in centimeters
# our ruler only goes up to the millimeter
distance = MeasuredData(197.5, 0.1)

# let's quickly convert distance to meters...
distance /= 100
# distance = 1.975±0.001

# now let's calculate the velocity in m/s
velocity = distance / time

print(velocity) # 39.5±0.8

For graphing, check out the physics_utils.graph module; and for tables, the physics_utils.table module.