Gain insights into using Python for mechanical and aerospace engineering. Learn about basics, graphing techniques, airfoil plotting, and dynamic pressure and orbital modeling in 2D and 3D.

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Python tkinter

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Python pweave

In this course, you will learn about the Python programming language in the context of mechanical and aerospace engineering. 

You will start with the basics of Python, like variables, collections, and different types of loops. Once you have the basics out of the way, the real fun begins. You will learn how to: graph thrust available and thrust required, graph dynamic pressure during a rocket launch, and how to plot airfoil coordinates. 

Towards the end, you will get a strong overview of orbital parameters and learn how to model both 2D and 3D static orbits. Once you’ve completed this course, you will have a better understanding of Python and how it works in the context of mechanical/aerospace engineering.

Python for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

# Unit errors

NASA launched the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1998 to study changes in the Martian atmosphere and climate. In September 1999, NASA lost communication with the orbiter as it was performing an orbital insertion above Mars. It was later discovered that a piece of software provided results in non-SI units when the specifications sheet and software receiving the calculations expected the results in the SI units. The orbiter crashed into Mars due to the unit conversion error, and the experiment was prematurely concluded. That is an expensive unit error.

# GUIs in Python
So far, all of our programs have been run within the script editor, and any results have been printed to the console. A Graphical User Interface called a GUI and pronounced as gooey, is the more advanced way to have a user interact with your program and see its results. There are several different libraries for creating a GUI in Python, such as `PyQT`, `Tkinter`, `Wx`, `Kivy`, and many others. `Tkinter` is a built-in library for Python, so you will use it to create a GUI to convert values in different pressure units. Its documentation [1] and a guide [2] are linked in the Resources section.

# Pressure units
Pressure is defined as force per unit area, so the base unit in SI is Newton per meter squared or Pascal. The US unit is pound-force per square inch or psi. You will use `Pint`, a Python units library, to assign and convert different units. The documentation for `Pint` can be found under footnote [3]. The GitHub repository for `Pint` [4] shows all of the default pressure units you will use later.

This program will go through three iterations. The first time, you will see how building a GUI works so that you will hard-code in the conversion from megapascals, MPa, to pounds per square inch, psi. After that, you will learn how to make a dropdown menu to offer the user the option to convert between any base pressure unit. Finally, you will make a free-form text entry; by doing so, you can harness the full functionality of `Pint` and let the user convert between any units of the same dimension, like velocity or distance, not just pressure.


Getting Comfortable with Python

FizzBuzz

Graphing Thrust Available and Thrust Required

Graphing Dynamic Pressure During a Rocket Launch

Getting and Plotting Airfoil Coordinates

Modeling a 2-Body Orbit in 2D and 3D

Unit Conversions

Introduction to Web Scraping

Modeling Camera Shutter Effect

Writing Reports with Pweave

The End

Introduction to Tkinter

Unit errors