## Basic math

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Python is a basic calculator out of the box. Here we consider the most basic mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponenetiation. we use the to get the output. For now we consider integers and float numbers. An integer is a plain number like 0, 10 or -2345. A float number has a decimal in it. The following are all floats: 1.0, -9., and 3.56. Note the trailing zero is not required, although it is good style.

print 2 + 4
print 8.1 - 5

6
3.1


Multiplication is equally straightforward.

print 5 * 4
print 3.1*2

20
6.2


Division is almost as straightforward, but we have to remember that integer division is not the same as float division. Let us consider float division first.

print 4.0 / 2.0
print 1.0/3.1

2.0
0.322580645161


Now, consider the integer versions:

print 4 / 2
print 1/3

2
0


The first result is probably what you expected, but the second may come as a surprise. In integer division the remainder is discarded, and the result is an integer.

Exponentiation is also a basic math operation that python supports directly.

print 3.**2
print 3**2
print 2**0.5

9.0
9
1.41421356237


Other types of mathematical operations require us to import functionality from python libraries. We consider those in the next section.