title: Meaning of the backtick character in Python
body: <p>I'm just getting started with python. Can somebody interpret line 2 of the following code snippet?  I don't understand the <code>`num`</code> bit. I tried to replace the backtick character with a single tick <code>'</code>, but then it broke. Just a detailed explanation of that line would be great.</p>
  
  <pre><code>loop_count = 1000000
  irn = ''.join([`num` for num in range(loop_count)])
  number = int(irn[1]) * int(irn[10]) * int(irn[100]) * int(irn[1000]) * int(irn[10000]) * int(irn[100000]) * int(irn[1000000])
  print number
  </code></pre>