I realize this may be slightly off topic, but I also believe this is probably the best way to get an answer to my question:
What is the best combination of software packages / programming languages to solve basic astronomy questions, such as applying Kepler's laws, calculating radial velocities (i.e. basic linear algebra) etc in a scalable way?
Essentially what I need is
- Equation solver (Mathematica or Astropy combined with Sympy?)
- Unit conversion (Mathematica and Astropy)
I'd like to hear some opinions what combination of tools people are using to perform basic astronomy calculations such as the above example, where unit-conversion and solving linear equations appear to be the most common tasks.
As an example problem: How would I solve for a variable in kepler's third law after assigning values to all other variables?
a^3/P^2 = G * (Ms + Mp) / 4 * pi^2
It seems simple in Mathematica doing Solve[a^3/P^2 == (G (Ms + Mp))/(4 \[Pi]^2), P]]
. Is there any equivalent in python that can solve and at the same time handle units?
P=sqrt(4*a^3*pi^2/(G*(Ms+Mp))
and then get the computer to evaluate it. Python is a good choice to do the evaluations. I also don't get "handle units" that is part of the programmer's task. This is non-linear, but solving linear equations is the same: You do the the symbolic re-arrangement once (or get mathematica/wolfram alpha to do it), you then get the computer to do the evaluation for different values. $\endgroup$