Jupyter Notebooks

This tutorial is a Jupyter notebook - a document made of "cells", which can contain explanations in text or code written in Python. Code cells can be executed and their outputs e.g. numbers, messages, graphs, tables, files etc. can be viewed within the notebook, which makes it a really powerful platform for experimentation and analysis. Don't afraid to experiment with the code & break things - you'll learn a lot by encoutering and fixing errors. You can use the "Kernel > Restart & Clear Output" menu option to clear all outputs and start again from the top of the notebook.

Getting started with the classic Jupyter Notebook

pip

If you use pip, you can install it with:

pip install notebook

Congratulations, you have installed Jupyter Notebook! To run the notebook, run the following command at the Terminal (Mac/Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows):

jupyter notebook

Performing Arithmetic Operations using Python

Let's begin by using Python as a calculator. You can write and execute Python using a code cell within Jupyter.

Working with Cells: To create a new cell within Jupyter, you can select "Insert > Insert Cell Below" from the menu bar or just press the "+" button on the toolbar. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Esc+B to create a new cell. Once a cell is created, click on it to select it. You can then change the cell type to code or markdown (text) using "Cell > Cell Type" menu option. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Esc+Y and Esc+M. Double click a cell to edit the content within the cell. To apply your changes and run a cell, use the "Cell > Run Cells" menu option or click the "Run" button on the toolbar or just use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Enter. You can see a full list of keyboard shortcuts using the "Help > Keyboard Shortcuts" menu option.

Run the code cells below to perform calculations and view their result. Try changing the numbers and run the changed cells again to see updated results. Can you guess what the //, % and ** operators are used for?