1.3.1 Numbers

A number may be an integer, a real number, or a complex number. The usual operations are as follows:

• Addition and subtraction, + and -
• Multiplication and division, * and /
• Power, **

Here is an example:

2 ** (2 + 2) # 16
1j ** 2 # -1
1. + 3.0j

The symbol j denotes the imaginary part of a complex number. It is a syntactic element and should not be confused with multiplication by a variable.