sympy#

  • Series: lecture-python-programming

  • File: lectures/sympy.md

  • Audit date: 2026-05-28

  • Categories audited: writing, math, code, figures, references, links, admonitions (JAX out of scope)

  • Overall score: 7.2 / 10

  • Priority: LOW

Score breakdown#

Category

Score

One-line note

Writing

7/10

Some H2 in sentence case; H3 mostly sentence case; H2 stragglers remain.

Math

6/10

Bare E(X) used as expectation violates qe-math-010 (proposed).

Code

8/10

Only Anaconda packages (sympy, numpy, matplotlib); Greek unicode (λ) used as a SymPy Symbol per qe-code-002; from sympy import * is a star-import — pedagogically common in SymPy intros but technically discouraged by PEP8 (qe-code-001 nit).

JAX

out of scope

—

Figures

N/A

No matplotlib figures (SymPy’s own plot() is used but produces inline output, no figure metadata).

References

N/A

No citations.

Links

7/10

Two bare URLs to sibling series. Examples: line 200 [trigonometry and complex numbers](https://python.quantecon.org/complex_and_trig.html), line 313 [geometric series](https://intro.quantecon.org/geom_series.html...), line 664 [Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE)](https://python.quantecon.org/mle.html) — should be {doc} links with intersphinx prefix per qe-link-002.

Admonitions

8/10

Two {exercise-start} and two {exercise} (line 612, 661) gated/non-gated mix; two {solution-start} with :class: dropdown and :label: per qe-admon-005.

Issues#

Critical#

None found.

High severity#

  • [qe-link-002] — Three bare URLs to sibling lecture series. Examples: line 200 (python.quantecon.org/complex_and_trig.html), line 313 (intro.quantecon.org/geom_series.html), line 664 (python.quantecon.org/mle.html) — should use {doc}`intermediate:complex_and_trig`, {doc}`intro:geom_series`, {doc}`intermediate:mle`. Count: 3 occurrences.

Medium severity#

  • [qe-writing-006] — A few H2 headings use Title Case. Examples: line 45 ## Getting Started, line 371 ## Symbolic Calculus, line 470 ## Plotting, line 515 ## Application: Two-person Exchange Economy, line 610 ## Exercises. Count: 5 occurrences.

  • [qe-math-010 (proposed)] — Bare E(X) used for expectation rather than \mathbb{E}[X]. Example: line 349 E(X) = \sum_{x=0}^{\infty} x f(x). Count: 1 occurrence in display math (plus E(X) echoed at line 368 in code — but that is a SymPy E symbol, which is intentionally what from sympy.stats import E provides).

Low severity#

  • [qe-writing-004] — Mixed casing inside ## Application: Two-person Exchange Economy (line 515).

  • [qe-code-001] — from sympy import * (line 50) is a star-import; common in SymPy tutorials but discouraged by PEP8.

  • [qe-admon-001] — Two exercises use bare {exercise} rather than gated syntax (lines 612, 661); bodies are prose-only.

Strengths#

  • Lecture title “SymPy” follows qe-writing-006.

  • Many H2 headings already use sentence case (“Symbolic algebra”); H3 mostly sentence case.

  • Lowercase f for densities/PMFs per qe-math-015 (proposed) (lines 323, 412).

  • Sequences correctly use \{...\} (e.g., \{\xi_t\}) per qe-math-005.

  • Greek unicode (λ) used as a SymPy Symbol per qe-code-002.

  • Exercise/solution pairs use :class: dropdown and :label: per qe-admon-002/qe-admon-005.