# Help me compile a physics software list

1. Feb 19, 2005

### relativitydude

I'm going to be creating a website and would like to post links to the best physics software titles. Anyone have any favorites?

2. Feb 20, 2005

### relativitydude

3. Feb 20, 2005

### polyb

Some indespensible software titles that you should list, IMHO are:

LabVIEW - I real nice GUI program for the lab! Kind of pricey though.

Mathematica- Need I say more? OK, pricey.

MATLAB- Easy, big, and pricey but good.

Python-Because it's free, open source compiler with many goodies. Plus it was inspired by Monty Pyhton. This is the link to Sci-Py.

Origin- a nice program for data analysis and graphing.

C/C++ - Standard!

Fortran- Old but a sleek fast procedural program that wont clog up CPU resources plus Numerical Recipes for just about any mathematical operation you can think of! This one wont be going away any time soon, though I suspect python may give it some competition for numerical computations.

LaTeX-If your going to publish, you need this!
That's all I can think of at the moment. Hope that helps. Sorry I could not provide all links.

Last edited: Feb 20, 2005
4. Feb 20, 2005

### PerennialII

Some places where I've extracted stuff :

http://www.netsci.org/Resources/Software/Modeling/QM/
http://www.femlab.com/
http://www.scd.ucar.edu/softlib/LAPACK.html
http://www.iavsc.org/
http://www.csc.fi/physics/mika/ [Broken]
http://gid.cimne.upc.es/index.html [Broken]
http://www.nag.co.uk/numeric/numerical_libraries.asp
http://www.vni.com/products/imsl/ [Broken]
http://www.mesa3d.org/
http://www.csc.fi/elmer/index.phtml [Broken]
http://gams.nist.gov/

Last edited by a moderator: May 1, 2017
5. Feb 20, 2005

### Gokul43201

Staff Emeritus
For crystallographers :

* Peak Fitting - XFit (by Coelho and Cheary)

* Autoindexing - Crysfire (by Robin Shirley)

* Space Group Assignment and Unit Cell Refinement - Chekcell (by Jean Laugier and Bernard Bochu)

* Rietveld Refinement - GSAS Gui (by Alan Larson & Bob Von Dreele, GUI by Brian Toby)

* Reciprocal Space Structure Solution - EXPO/Sirpow (by Carmelo Giacovazzo and the IRMEC Group at Bari, Italy)

* Line Profile Analysis - http://www.boulder.nist.gov/div853/balzar/breadth.htm [Broken](by Davor Balzar)

* Perovskite Structure Prediction - http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/~mlufaso/spuds/ [Broken](by Mike Lufaso and Pat Woodward)

Last edited by a moderator: May 1, 2017
6. Feb 20, 2005

### relativitydude

Thanks for the links, guys but I was looking for more down to earth, student software. Especially like Physics 101 SE which is like $10, not the$5000 variety :P

7. Feb 20, 2005

### Gokul43201

Staff Emeritus
I wish people would specify things to a greater detail when asking for responses. Some of us may have put in considerable time and effort in hunting out those links.

Sorry I'm posting this rant here; (this is hardly the first time this has happened) you just happened to be my last straw.

8. Feb 20, 2005

I thought it would be intuitively obvious, how many of us go out and get $5000 software titles? 9. Feb 20, 2005 ### graphic7 There are no$5000 software titles listed. Mathematica with a full, transferrable license is $3,000. Matlab and Maple are about the same or chaper. Mathematica, Matlab, and Maple all have student licenses available for$150 each. The student license typically last until you no longer are attending school.

Typically, if you go into any research field, whether that be Mathematics or Physics, you'll probably run into Mathematica, Matlab, and/or Maple. They are professional/educational products for professional/educational purposes.

10. Feb 20, 2005

### Moonbear

Staff Emeritus
It wasn't intuitively obvious what you wanted at all. You asked for software used by physicists, you didn't specify cheap software for students. There probably isn't much out there that's really cheap like what you're looking for.

11. Feb 20, 2005

### Davorak

12. Feb 21, 2005

### Gokul43201

Staff Emeritus
None of the programs on my list cost $5000. They are mostly (if not all) free (open source) software. But also, none of them is a Physics 101 type of package. I'm sorry that I started this unpleasantness here...I was just venting. I have no intention of derailing this thread. But please do keep in mind that it would be a lot nicer if you gave as much detail as possible when making a request. Thanks ! That's good enough for me ! Now let's bury the hatchet and get this back on track, wot ? Have you looked into the https://www.physicsforums.com/local_links.php [Broken] ? There some 100 and 200-level lecture notes (under Classical or General Physics) and other neat resources there. And the homework help links are still under construction, so if you check back later, Tom may have put in a bunch of useful stuff there too. Last edited by a moderator: May 1, 2017 13. Feb 21, 2005 ### Nylex Great, so no-one uses MathCad? 14. Feb 21, 2005 ### PerennialII Many do and are very satisfied with it (and do really complex stuff with it)... personally I've found it nice overall, but IMHO there comes a point when Mathematica & Maple do sweep the floors with it . 15. Feb 21, 2005 ### danne89 I'm of that opinon that all special software should have capability to be programmed. And be bound to C-program. I think you should check out sourceforge for libraries, which include physics related functionality. 16. Feb 23, 2005 ### Artman Okay, the actual program is a learning aide and not terribly advanced (ages 13-18), however, it comes with a pretty decent calculation surface that allows you to write out calculations as they would appear on paper (good for us non math types) and it's cheap$39.99.

http://www.learnatglobal.com/html/math_catalog_6.html

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 21, 2017
17. Feb 24, 2005

### tribdog

I find this one to be helpful when Gokul is being grouchy and I've broken his back with another last straw.
Gokul43201info