Setup

This lesson will be using Python 3 along with several of its more common libraries: scipy, pandas, matplotlib, and numpy. We will be using Anaconda for our purposes here - Anaconda installs a launcher with Jupyter Notebook as one of the options. Jupyter Notebooks will be used for their cells which make dividing up processes more convenient when working with Python.

To get started downloading Anaconda, follow this link. Anaconda is free, and if you don't want to create an account with them click the "skip registration" link inside the "Free Download" box. Don't download "Miniconda", instead, download the full distribution with the Distribution installers for your OS.

Next, create a folder to house your project files, named something like "data-fitting". After doing this, download and unzip these raw data files. Then, you can move the "raw-data" folder into your project folder.

Finally, create a new notebook by clicking on New and Notebook and selecting the kernel: Python 3 (ipykernel). You can then either name your project or keep it untitled.

Here's a short video showing the process of opening a Jupyter Notebook and running a code cell (skipping the step of creating a new folder):

If you're having trouble loading this video, you may have to open it in a new tab, window, or browser. Click here for the link to the video.

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Now that we're all setup, click here to continue to the next section where we can begin to learn more about the experiment and how it functions before getting started fitting our data.