Physics79L

Welcome to the repository for the class modules for Physics 79L: Introduction to Data Analysis, With Python and Jupyter.

Each week you will be working through 1-3 notebooks during the lab time, and then spending some additional time writing up a short report on what you did.

This github repository contains the notebooks that you will be using, as well as the data and figures that you will need to run those notebooks.

For up-to-date information, please go to the website

Running these notebooks on your computer

Installing Python / Jupyter on your computer

Jupyter is an interactive environment that we will be using to run the notebooks for this course. The best/most flexible way to run jupyter is to install it on your computer. The easiest way to do that is to install it as part of an installation of the "Anaconda" data analysis environment.

You can download anaconda for free here:

https://www.anaconda.com/download/success

https://jupyter-notebook-beginner-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

Installing and updating this Repository on your computer

1. Install the github desktop app from here: https://desktop.github.com/
2. You should make a Github account if you do not have one, as it will be useful beyond this course, and is needed to download the repository
3. Once you have installed github desktop and made an account, click on the "Current Repository" box in the upper left corner. This gives you a text box and a pull-down menu.
   1. Alternatively, where it says "Let's get started!", click "Clone a Repository from the Internet", and then select the "URL" tab.
4. Type in 'KIPAC/Physics79L' into the text box and select "Clone Repository..." from the drop-down menu.
5. This will "clone" the repository onto your computer, for example putting it in "Documents/GitHub/Physics79L"
   1. You can always change this installation location if you have already have a file organization structure in place on your laptop.
6. At any point you can then update your local copy from the "origin" repository by clicking on "Fetch Origin" button.
7. This will show all the changes that you have made to your local version. As part of the course, we'll talk about how to keep your local changes and merge any updates from the "origin".

Backup plan, Running these notebooks using jupyter on the web.

You can also use the service "binder" to run the notebooks on a remote server on the web. This works, but has some significant disadvantages. If you cannot get the notebooks to run on your computer, please discuss this option with the instructor as soon as possible.

1. Go to https://mybinder.org/
2. Type "KIPAC/Physics79L" into the "GitHub repository name or URL" text box and then click on the orange "Launch" button, it will take a few minutes to set up a machine somewhere off in the cloud and connect you to it.

Opening a Notebook in your browser

One you have started jupyter, it will pop up a browser window showing the contents of what jupyter treats as your home folder. You can then navigate around using the browser interface to find and then open your code.