you can perform only string operations on string and list operations on list in formal termsthis means that python is dynamically typeda model that keeps track of types for you automatically instead of requiring declaration codebut it is also strongly typeda constraint that means you can perform on an object only operations that are valid for its type we'll study each of the object types in table - in detail in upcoming before digging into the detailsthoughlet' begin by taking quick look at python' core objects in action the rest of this provides preview of the operations we'll explore in more depth in the that follow don' expect to find the full story here--the goal of this is just to whet your appetite and introduce some key ideas stillthe best way to get started is to get startedso let' jump right into some real code numbers if you've done any programming or scripting in the pastsome of the object types in table - will probably seem familiar even if you haven'tnumbers are fairly straightforward python' core objects set includes the usual suspectsintegers that have no fractional partfloating-point numbers that doand more exotic types--complex numbers with imaginary partsdecimals with fixed precisionrationals with numerator and denominatorand full-featured sets built-in numbers are enough to represent most numeric quantities--from your age to your bank balance--but more types are available as third-party add-ons although it offers some fancier optionspython' basic number types arewellbasic numbers in python support the normal mathematical operations for instancethe plus sign (+performs additiona star (*is used for multiplicationand two stars (**are used for exponentiation integer addition floating-point multiplication * to the power again notice the last result herepython ' integer type automatically provides extra precision for large numbers like this when needed (in xa separate long integer type handles numbers too large for the normal integer type in similar waysyou canfor instancecompute to the power , , as an integer in pythonbut you probably shouldn' try to print the result--with more than , digitsyou may be waiting awhilelen(str( * ) how many digits in really big numbernumbers