# `04_Introduction`

`04_Introduction` contains small scripts that illustrate the numerical and
network-term ideas used later in the solvent, polymer, and gel workflows.

## Prerequisites

Install and activate the repository environment from
[`../README.md`](../README.md). Run the scripts from this directory so output
lands in the local `figures/` folder.

## Scripts

- [`alternating_tangents_example.py`](alternating_tangents_example.py): binary
  free-energy example for the alternating-tangent construction
- [`plot_network_terms.py`](plot_network_terms.py): plots network potentials
  and their derivatives for the elasticity terms used later in the gel work

## Commands

```bash
cd 04_Introduction
python alternating_tangents_example.py
python plot_network_terms.py
```

## Outputs

- [`figures/`](figures/): publication-support PDFs generated by the two example
  scripts
- `figures/alternating_tangents_example_toc.pdf`: compact variant used for
  manuscript or table-of-contents style assets

## Notes

Both scripts use relative `figures/` paths. Running them from the repository
root will create or update a root-level `figures/` directory instead of this
folder's output archive.
