Treffer: Physics in Python Course at Zagreb University of Applied Sciences

Python programming language is an increasingly widespread tool used for solving general computational problems in a variety of applications. In 2018, at the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences in Croatia, we introduced laboratory-computer exercises to a physics course in which Python was used to solve problems and to process the results of measurements. Students of Information Technology who attended our course had already completed a course in Programming basics in the previous semester. Our objective was to encourage IT students to apply the programming skills they had acquired to solve problems in other subjects. Before introducing Python, we used to solve problems by explaining the physical framework of the problem, making a sketch, writing down formulae and solving them on the blackboard. With the new approach, we additionally analyze problems using coresponding Python programs which were designed to provide further insights into the problem through graphical representation and additional visualization. This proved to be particularly beneficial during the 2020 lockdown, when we transitioned to online classes. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate several examples of how we solved problems using the Python programming language and to analyse the reactions of students to this new way of teaching physics.