A blog of Python-related topics and code.
Simulating foraminifera
Posted by: christian on 7 Dec 2015
Foraminifera are a phylum of mostly marine protists which produce a shell or "test" in the form of a series of linked chambers. One approach to modelling the morphology of foraminifera shells [Tyszka and Topa, Paleobiology 31(3), 522 (2005)] in two dimensions treats the chambers as overlapping circles. Let the vector from the centre of chamber $i$ to its "output" aperture be $\mathbf{r_i}$.
The Lorenz attractor
Posted by: christian on 4 Dec 2015
The Lorenz system of coupled, ordinary, first-order differential equations have chaotic solutions for certain parameter values $\sigma$, $\rho$ and $\beta$ and initial conditions, $u(0)$, $v(0)$ and $w(0)$.
House buyers avoid completing on the 13th of the month
Posted by: christian on 3 Dec 2015
Using the database of the UK land registry's record of house sales, we can extract the total number of sales for each day as follows:
The moment of inertia of a random flight polymer
Posted by: christian on 4 Nov 2015
A simple model of a polymer in solution treats its monomer units as totally uncorrelated in position (each monomer unit adopts a random orientation with respect to all the others): this is the random flight model.
Making a Matplotlib plot look better #1
Posted by: christian on 19 Oct 2015
Before Everest was climbed, the "World summit record" was the highest mountain summit climbed by a particular date. It seems likely that people in South America reached several peaks well in excess of 6000 m before records began, so the following table (adapted from Wikipedia's World altitude record article starts only with the first recorded ascent of Aconcagua in 1897.