# Tychos Documentation and Reference

## How To Get Started

Tychos is a tool for teaching and learning about computational modeling of physical phenomenon. It has been designed to be easy to use and contains many features that make it ideal for helping teachers incorporate computational thinking into the science classroom.

### Video Guides

If you are new to computational modeling, we suggest taking a look out our video tutorials first as a way to get oriented with Tychos.

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that we are currently working on a new video series that demonstrates the use of the Python language, but at this point we only have video guides that demonstrate MathJs.
{% endhint %}

{% content-ref url="learn/video-guides" %}
[video-guides](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/learn/video-guides)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Python Demonstrations and MathJs Demonstrations

A good way to learn how to use Tychos is to explore some examples. Tychos scenarios can be written in two different languages. The default language is the popular Python programming language, but you can easily switch to MathJs which is how Tychos scenarios were originally authored.

{% content-ref url="demonstrations" %}
[demonstrations](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/demonstrations)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="demonstrations-1" %}
[demonstrations-1](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/demonstrations-1)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Learn The Tychos Language (Python or MathJs)

Depending on which language you feel more comfortable learning/using, the language reference documentation is a good place to go to get more information about the coding interface, syntax and built in objects that you can use in Tychos.

The Tychos Python Application Programming Interface (API) and the MathJs Application Programming Interface (API) are similar but have important differences, so be sure to read the one that matches the language you intend to use for your Tychos scenarios.

{% content-ref url="learn/language-reference-api" %}
[language-reference-api](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/learn/language-reference-api)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="learn/language-reference-api-1" %}
[language-reference-api-1](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/learn/language-reference-api-1)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Example Lessons

If you are a teacher and you want to begin using Tychos in your classroom, we have created a series of example lessons that begin with an introduction to Tychos and computational modeling. These lessons  provide you with a scope and sequence for taking students from basic coding all the way through teaching them how to model complex behavior like orbiting planets and oscillations!

{% hint style="info" %}
We are working on updating our documentation to include example lessons using our new Python API, but currently we only have lessons that reference the MathJs language.
{% endhint %}

{% content-ref url="for-teachers/example-lessons" %}
[example-lessons](https://docs.tychos.org/docs/for-teachers/example-lessons)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.tychos.org/docs/master.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.