Exercise 1 : Introduction to Python Programing using Google Colab
Objective : What I want you to learn?
Python programing using the Google Colab for writing simple codes involving arithmetic operations.
Appreciate the highlight the features of Google Colab
Rationale : Why this is useful to you?
Writing the python codes for the calculation of the aircraft performance will make you understand the aircraft performance concepts better
The python codes are helpful to analyze the parameters that affect the aircraft performance
Learning Outcomes : What I want you to do after completing this topic?
Write simple python programs in the Google Colab Notebook
Appreciate the significance of python programing using Google Colab
Introduction to Python Programing Language:
Python is a general-purpose high-level, remarkably powerful dynamic programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains. Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative and functional programming styles. It was created by Guido van Rossum during 1985- 1990. Python source code is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Its one of the most used programing language among the developers worldwide.
Python, as a programming language is easy and simple to learn. Python cuts development time in half with its simple to read syntax and easy compilation feature. Also, it has plenty of libraries that support data analysis, manipulation and visualization.
The popularity of Python programming is steadily rising and so are Python career opportunities.
Introduction to Google Colab:
Google is quite aggressive in AI research. Over many years, Google developed AI framework called TensorFlow and a development tool called Colaboratory. Today TensorFlow is open-sourced and since 2017, Google made Colaboratory free for public use. Colaboratory is now known as Google Colab or simply Colab.
Another attractive feature that Google offers to the developers is the use of GPU. Colab supports GPU and it is totally free. The reasons for making it free for public could be to make its software a standard in the academics for teaching machine learning and data science. It may also have a long term perspective of building a customer base for Google Cloud APIs which are sold per-use basis.
Irrespective of the reasons, the introduction of Colab has eased the learning and development of machine learning applications. Colab is a free Jupyter notebook environment that runs entirely in the cloud. Most importantly, it does not require a setup and the notebooks that you create can be simultaneously edited by your team members - just the way you edit documents in Google Docs. Colab supports many popular machine learning libraries which can be easily loaded in your notebook. [Ref 2]
What Colab Offers You?
As a programmer, you can perform the following using Google Colab.
Write and execute code in Python
Document your code that supports mathematical equations
Create/Upload/Share notebooks
Import/Save notebooks from/to Google Drive
Import/Publish notebooks from GitHub
Import external datasets e.g. from Kaggle
Integrate PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, OpenCV
Free Cloud service with free GPU
Assignment 1: Due Date: 04th October 2020 (Sunday)
Question No 1: Write a python code for to get input of two integers from the user and display the arithmetic operations of those two numbers. Use all the below arithmetic operators in the code.
Question No 2: Write a python code for to get input of altitude from the mean sea level, and to display the acceleration due to gravity at the altitude.
Materials for Further Studying and Reference Materials:
Ref 1: Tutorials Point - Python Tutorial
Ref 2: Python Self Learning Course