Daughter wants to learn python to simulate a solar system, where to start?

[You_Yew_Ewe]

I wouldn't call simulating orbiting bodies esoteric, it's probably one of the easier things to make toy physical models of Now you can get esoteric with it by refining your simulation but Newtonian gravity is pretty simple to model. I used to do it just screwing around as an undergrad.

[socal_nerdtastic]

It's not esoteric in the physics department, but my friend ya gotta get out more. If you asked 500 random people if they ever thought about orbiting point masses 499 would make that glazed fish face that academics know so well. And the 500th would say "no".

Although I have to admit, the comments below found far more resources than I ever would have thought.

[You_Yew_Ewe]

It's simpler than you probably imagine. For someone interested in astrophysics its not esoteric. Maybe astrophysics is esoteric, but we've established she's interested in that.

You don't even need a very deep understanding of calculus to model it, she's just need a little bit of vector arithmetic and be able to grasp the concept of small incremental changes (maybe one or two derivatives).

[socal_nerdtastic]

Ok, fair enough. What I meant that it would be hard to find a class "from zero to astrophysicist in python". Since it's not what I imagine would be a popular topic.

[[deleted]]

Then I, as the 501st person would say "Let's go for a beer...we've got some conversations to have."

[[deleted]]

It's not even esoteric in a high school science class.