Notes on the Weierstrass Elliptic Function

Abstract: A consistent notation for the Weierstrass elliptic function $\wp(z;g_{2},g_{3})$, for $g_{2} > 0$ and arbitrary values of $g_{3}$ and $\Delta \equiv g_{2}^{3} - 27 g_{3}^{2}$, is introduced based on the parametric solution for the motion of a particle in a cubic potential. These notes provide a roadmap for the use of {\sf Mathematica} to calculate the half-periods $(\omega_{1},\omega_{3},\omega_{2} \equiv \omega_{1} + \omega_{3})$ of the Weierstrass elliptic function.