the sign it takes the rest of the line as comment python then simply skips reading the rest of the line and jumps to the next line in the codeyou see several such comments and probably realize that they make it easier for you to understand (or guesswhat is meant with the code in simple casescomments are probably not much neededbut will soon be justified as the level of complexity steps up the next line read by python is initial velocity in pythona statement like is known as an assignment statement (very different from mathematical equation!the result on the right-hand sidehere the integer becomes an object and the variable name on the left-hand side is named reference for that object whenever we write python will replace it by an integer with value doing creates new namev for the same integer object with value and not copy of an integer object with value the next two lines acceleration of gravity time are of the same kindso having read them toopython knows of three variables ( gtand their values these variables are then used by python when it reads the next linethe actual "formula" * * * ** vertical position againaccording to its rulespython interprets as multiplicationas minus and *as exponent (let us also add here thatnot surprisinglyand would have been understood as addition and divisionif such signs had been present in the expressionhaving read the linepython performs the mathematics on the righthand sideand then assigns the result (in this case the number to the variable name finallypython reads print this makes python print the value of out in that window on the screen where you started the program when ball py is runthe number appears on the screen in the code aboveyou see several blank lines too these are simply skipped by python and you may use as many as you want to make nice and readable layout of the code why not just use pocket calculatorcertainlyfinding the answer as done by the program above could easily have been done with pocket calculator no objections to that and no programming would have been needed howeverwhat if you would like to have the position of the ball