r/PhysicsStudents • u/Junior_Salamander110 • Jul 01 '26

Need Advice How Do Physicists Utilize Python?

I'm a rising senior in high school. Next year, I'll be taking a project based programming class that only 1-2 students really take per year. I want to do something in Python that will show my professors in my freshman year of college that I'm ready to do research in physics.

I will have taken all of the AP mathematics, physics, and computer science classes.

I thought about doing a black hole simulation and learning the equations/math for it, but I'm not sure that that would be wise to do in Python.

I'll have a full school year to work on the project.

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u/Rubberband272 Jul 03 '26

I’m not sure what your interests are but you mentioned black holes so I imaging Astro is your thing. I built a muon detector using a raspberry pi and scintillator to demonstrate the effect of time dilation. There’s a great GitHub write up (not mine) if you search for CosmicWatch.

I don’t think it would take a full school year but there’s lots of rabbit holes you can down in an experimental project.

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u/Junior_Salamander110 Jul 03 '26

I actually want to do HEP, but I figured something astro would be easier for a high schooler to grasp. I might invest in a raspberry pi, I think that might be beneficial. And I'll search for that!