Book description
With its emphasis on project-based practice, Real-World Python will take you from playing with syntax to writing complete programs in no time. You’ll conduct experiments, explore statistical concepts, and solve novel problems that have frustrated geniuses throughout history, like detecting distant exoplanets, as you continue to build your Python skills.
Chapters begin with a clearly defined project goal and a discussion of ways to attack the problem, followed by a mission designed to make you think like a programmer. You’ll direct a Coast Guard search-and-rescue effort, plot and execute a NASA flight to the moon, protect access to a secure lab using facial recognition, and more. Along the way you’ll learn how to:
•Use libraries like matplotlib, NumPy, Bokeh, pandas, Requests, Beautiful Soup, and turtle
•Work with Natural Language Processing and computer vision modules like NLTK and OpenCV
•Write a program to detect and track objects moving across a starfield
•Scrape speeches from the internet and autosummarize them
•Use the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) map to select spacecraft landing sites
•Survive a zombie apocalypse with the aid of data-plotting and visualization tools
The book’s programs are beginner-friendly, but as you progress you’ll learn more sophisticated techniques to help you grow your coding capabilities. Once your missions are accomplished, you’ll be ready to solve real-world problems with Python on your own.
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- About the Author
- BRIEF CONTENTS
- CONTENTS IN DETAIL
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 SAVING SHIPWRECKED SAILORS WITH BAYES’ RULE
- 2 ATTRIBUTING AUTHORSHIP WITH STYLOMETRY
-
3 SUMMARIZING SPEECHES WITH NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
- Project #3: I Have a Dream . . . to Summarize Speeches!
- Project #4: Summarizing Speeches with gensim
- Project #5: Summarizing Text with Word Clouds
- Summary
- Further Reading
- Challenge Project: Game Night
- Challenge Project: Summarizing Summaries
- Challenge Project: Summarizing a Novel
- Challenge Project: It’s Not Just What You Say, It’s How You Say It!
- 4 SENDING SUPER-SECRET MESSAGES WITH A BOOK CIPHER
- 5 FINDING PLUTO
- 6 WINNING THE MOON RACE WITH APOLLO 8
-
7 SELECTING MARTIAN LANDING SITES
- How to Land on Mars
- The MOLA Map
- Project #10: Selecting Martian Landing Sites
- Summary
- Further Reading
- Practice Project: Confirming That Drawings Become Part of an Image
- Practice Project: Extracting an Elevation Profile
- Practice Project: Plotting in 3D
- Practice Project: Mixing Maps
- Challenge Project: Making It Three in a Row
- Challenge Project: Wrapping Rectangles
-
8 DETECTING DISTANT EXOPLANETS
- Transit Photometry
- Project #11: Simulating an Exoplanet Transit
- Project #12: Imaging Exoplanets
- Summary
- Further Reading
- Practice Project: Detecting Alien Megastructures
- Practice Project: Detecting Asteroid Transits
- Practice Project: Incorporating Limb Darkening
- Practice Project: Detecting Starspots
- Practice Project: Detecting an Alien Armada
- Practice Project: Detecting a Planet with a Moon
- Practice Project: Measuring the Length of an Exoplanet’s Day
- Challenge Project: Generating a Dynamic Light Curve
- 9 IDENTIFYING FRIEND OR FOE
- 10 RESTRICTING ACCESS WITH FACE RECOGNITION
- 11 CREATING AN INTERACTIVE ZOMBIE ESCAPE MAP
-
12 ARE WE LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION?
- Project #16: Life, the Universe, and Yertle’s Pond
- Summary
- Further Reading
- Moving On
- Challenge Project: Finding a Safe Space
- Challenge Project: Here Comes the Sun
- Challenge Project: Seeing Through a Dog’s Eyes
- Challenge Project: Customized Word Search
- Challenge Project: Simplifying a Celebration Slideshow
- Challenge Project: What a Tangled Web We Weave
- Challenge Project: Go Tell It on the Mountain
-
APPENDIX PRACTICE PROJECT SOLUTIONS
- Chapter 2: Attributing Authorship with Stylometry
- Chapter 4: Sending Super-Secret Messages with a Book Cipher
- Chapter 5: Finding Pluto
- Chapter 6: Winning the Moon Race with Apollo 8
- Chapter 7: Selecting Martian Landing Sites
- Chapter 8: Detecting Distant Exoplanets
- Chapter 9: Identifying Friend or Foe
- Chapter 10: Restricting Access with Face Recognition
- INDEX
Product information
- Title: Real-World Python
- Author(s):
- Release date: November 2020
- Publisher(s): No Starch Press
- ISBN: 9781718500624
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