Doing Math with Python

1Working with Numbers

Let’s take our first steps toward using Python to explore the world of math and science. We’ll keep it simple now so you can get a handle on using Python itself. We’ll start by performing basic mathematical operations, and then we’ll write simple programs for manipulating and understanding numbers. Let’s get started!

Basic Mathematical Operations

The Python interactive shell is going to be our friend in this book. Start the Python 3 IDLE shell and say “hello” (see Figure 1-1) by typing print('Hello IDLE') and then pressing ENTER. (For instructions on how to install Python and start IDLE, see Appendix A.) IDLE obeys your command ...