Mathematical Operations

# Mathematical Operations

Performing mathematical operations is somewhat intuitive in the Python programming languages. The code you'll write will mostly look like how you would write the operations on a piece of paper or in a graphing calculator. Try typing some of the operations below into a Code cell in your own Jupyter Notebook, and running the cell. The output of your code cell will appear directly underneath it.

2+2

4
7*3

21
24/6

4.0

If you were to use improper syntax when writing your code cell, Python will let you know by returning an error, specifically a SyntaxError.

5 +

  File "<ipython-input-4-4f4744a157be>", line 1
5 +
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax


You'll notice this error message provides some information as to why your code produced an error.

• SyntaxError: invalid syntax indicates that the error was caused by your code being written in a format Python did not understand. In this case, Python knows that the + symbol should have numerical objects on either side of it, and since there was no number on the right-hand side, did not know how to proceed.
• File "<ipython-input-4-4f4744a157be>", line 1 indicates that the error was found in line 1 of the cell.
• The ^ symbol indicates the location in the code that started the error.

Tracking down errors in your code will be a time-consuming part of your work when programming, so learning to read the error messages for hints about the nature of the error will be very helpful!

## Common Operators

You can use many of the common math operations in Python.

Expression Type Operator Example Value
Addition + 2 + 3 5
Subtraction - 2 - 3 -1
Multiplication * 2 * 3 6
Division / 7 / 3 2.33334
Floor Division // 7 // 3 2
Remainder (or Modulo) % 7 % 3 1
Exponentiation ** 2 ** 0.5 1.41421

## Order of Operations

Python expressions obey the same familiar rules of precedence as in algebra: multiplication and division occur before addition and subtraction. Parentheses can be used to group together smaller expressions within a larger expression.

1 + 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 / 6 ** 3 + 7 + 8 - 9 + 10

17.555555555555557
1 + 2 * (3 * 4 * 5 / 6) ** 3 + 7 + 8 - 9 + 10

2017.0

Explore some calculations that you can perform to get comfortable with the syntax and operators. See what kind of error you get when using operators to divide by 0 or perform other complex calculations. You won't break your computer or the internet by trying out something that produces an error message!