Class notes for introductory finite element methods using Python based code. You can download it here.

Notebooks in IPython are a powerful tool to present programming/math ideas (and are close to Literate Programming). We have some Notebooks complementing the class notes:

• [1-D Lagrange interpolation] (http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/jgomezc1/FEM-Notes/blob/master/notebooks/LAGRANGE1D.ipynb) shows an example of Lagrange interpolation for further use in the derivation of finite element basis functions.
• Gauss integration of Finite Elements presents the common procedure of integrating finite elements, and how it is done using Gauss quadrature.
• Ritz Method introduces the concept of calculus of variations and shows the Ritz method, that is the base of the Finite Element Method.