Mac environment setup

Installing Python¶

For detailed instructions and multiple options, see the official Python documentation for installing Python on macOS.

However, I recommend choosing one of two routes:

1. Install Python and set up your environment via the command line

2. Install Anaconda distribution for a GUI-based approach.

Command line installation route¶

1. First, install Homebrew, if you don’t already have it

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Anaconda installation route¶

If you prefer, you can install the Anaconda distribution, which simultaneously installs Python, a large number of popular scientific modules, and a package/environment manager.

For students, make sure you register using your university email address for free access. Anaconda is a commercial product, and has strict licensing and pricing for non-educational uses.

Anaconda provides detailed installation instructions.

Setting up computing environment¶

Although Python is quite powerful out of the box, a massive ecosystem of third-party packages greatly extends its usefulness, particularly when handling scientific and engineering problems. To use these, you’ll either need to install them into your Python environment via the shell (on Mac or Linux), or install using Anaconda.

On a Mac or Linux machine, I recommend using the built-in venv module to create a virtual environment for your work, then install inside that using the pip installer. Virtual environments are lightweight installations of packages in a particular location (such as in your working directory/project folder) that build on top of your system Python installation.

First, make sure you have a recent version of Python installed; I recommend 3.13.x, to avoid compatibility issues with the latest version of Python and some packages.

On Macs, use homebrew: brew install python@3.13.

On a Linux variant, use the appropriate package manager. For example, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3.13

Then, in your project folder, create and activate the virtual environment:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

(Depending on your shell configuration, you might see .(venv) next to the path to indicate the active virtual environment.)

Now, you can safely use pip to install the necessary packages:

pip install numpy scipy matplotlib pint fluids cantera

If you start a new terminal session, all you need to do is enter source .venv/bin/activate to reactivate the environment.