Interactive Data Visualization with Plotly

Introduction to Plotly

Plotly is a powerful library for creating interactive visualizations in Python, perfect for web-based scientific presentations.

Basic Interactive Plot


import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np

# Generate data
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y = np.sin(x)

# Create interactive plot
fig = go.Figure()
fig.add_trace(go.Scatter(x=x, y=y, mode='lines', name='sin(x)'))

# Update layout
fig.update_layout(
    title='Interactive Sine Wave',
    xaxis_title='x',
    yaxis_title='sin(x)'
)

# Show plot
fig.show()

3D Visualization

Create interactive 3D plots for complex physical systems.

3D Surface Plot


import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np

# Create 3D data
x = np.linspace(-5, 5, 100)
y = np.linspace(-5, 5, 100)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
Z = np.sin(np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2))

# Create 3D surface plot
fig = go.Figure(data=[go.Surface(z=Z, x=x, y=y)])

# Update layout
fig.update_layout(
    title='3D Wave Function',
    scene = dict(
        xaxis_title='X',
        yaxis_title='Y',
        zaxis_title='Z'
    )
)

fig.show()

Interactive Dashboards

Learn how to create interactive dashboards for data analysis.

Simple Dashboard


import plotly.express as px
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

# Create sample data
np.random.seed(42)
data = {
    'Time': np.linspace(0, 10, 100),
    'Temperature': 25 + np.random.normal(0, 1, 100),
    'Pressure': 1 + 0.1 * np.sin(np.linspace(0, 10, 100))
}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)

# Create interactive line plot
fig = px.line(df, x='Time', y=['Temperature', 'Pressure'],
              title='Temperature and Pressure vs Time')

# Update layout
fig.update_layout(
    xaxis_title='Time (s)',
    yaxis_title='Values',
    hovermode='x unified'
)

fig.show()

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Quantum States

Create an interactive 3D visualization of quantum harmonic oscillator wavefunctions.

Exercise 2: Data Analysis

Build an interactive dashboard to analyze and visualize experimental data from a physics experiment.

Additional Resources