Python for the Working (or Aspiring) Mathematician The 21st century offers more high-level languages than you could shake a stick at. And for mathematical use, we already have Mathematica, Matlab, Pari/GP, etc. What can one more language do for you? I will discuss the following: * Why people use Python. * The minimum you need to know to write and run simple Python programs, even if you haven't used such languages before. * Numerical processing, e.g. estimation of derivatives and integrals and ODE solvers. I will give some simple examples (a dozen lines of code or so). * Some features of pylab, which provides Matlab-like plotting functionality. John Kerl Software Interest Group October 26, 2009