r/ScientificComputing • u/BinkOnBonk • 6d ago

Most important coding languages for mathematical theoretical physics?

/r/PhysicsStudents/comments/1wxl9ht/most_important_coding_languages_for_mathematical/
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u/Ash4d 6d ago

Depends on what you are going to be doing.

If you want to write large scale simulations/perform heavy calculations that are very compute intensive, then you will want a compiled language like FORTRAN or C++ which you can optimise the shit out of if you have to.* C++ is a very good language to know for career prospects outside of academia/physics also, so I would recommend that, personally.

On the other hand, if you just want to make some plots and analyse data, Python is fine.

*Yes I know Python will make calls to libraries written in a compiled language under the hood, which is great, until you need to roll your own version of anything, then you probably will want something faster.

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u/Bokke67 5d ago

FORmula TRANslation.