3.4.7.1. Exercise: Function argument’s default values#
Let’s repeat the timing gate exercise, but this time using a proper function.
A sprinter runs through two timing gates spaced by 50 m as shown in Fig. 3.1. Each timing gate records the time (in seconds) at which the sprinter passes through it.
Write a function named calculate_speed that takes two mandatory arguments, which are the time of each timing gate, and that returns the mean velocity of the sprinter between gates 1 and 2, so that calling:
print(calculate_speed(1.3, 6.7))
prints a value of 9.2593.
In addition, this function should accommodate alternate distances between the timing gates, specified by an optional argument named distance_gates12:
calculate_speed(1.3, 6.7, distance_gates12=75)
Do not forget to include a docstring to your function.
Show code cell content
def calculate_speed(time_gate1, time_gate2, distance_gates12=50):
"""
Calculate the average velocity between two timing gates.
Parameters
----------
time_gate1, time_gate2 : float
Time at which the athlete passed through the gate, in seconds.
distance_gates12 : float
Optional. Distance between both timing gates, in meters. Default is 50.
Returns
-------
float
The velocity, in m/s.
"""
return distance_gates12 / (time_gate2 - time_gate1)
# Test the function:
print(calculate_speed(1.3, 6.7))
print(calculate_speed(1.3, 6.7, distance_gates12=75))
9.25925925925926
13.888888888888888