Error shown in Python - TypeError : unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow() :'str' and 'int' -

i started python today.. spent hours on codeacademy , learnt quite bit thought i'd make own program square ages of person , sibling. basic starter. pretty useless wanted see can do. keep getting typeerror mentioned in title. here's code :

a=raw_input(''enter age'')  b=raw_input(''sibling's age'')  square=a**2 + b**2 + 2ab if square <160:     print 'really young people'  else:     print 'square of sum >160' 

please thanks!!

first , foremost, if you're starting, really should learning python 3, not 2.

the code posted has many issues. here's line-by-line breakdown, corrections in python 3:

a=raw_input(''enter age'')  b=raw_input(''sibling's age'') 

you need use either single quotes ' or double quotes ", not 2 single quotes define strings. try:

a = int(input("enter age")) b = int(input("sibling's age")) 

there no raw_input() in python 3, it's input(). function returns string, if want math on need call int() turn result integer.

square=a**2 + b**2 + 2ab 

as long a , b ints, first 2 parts of expression fine, need remember operations in python explicit, you'll need fix last part so:

square = a**2 + b**2 + 2*a*b 

now last part:

if square <160:     print 'really young people'  else:     print 'square of sum >160' 

python case-sensitive. since used square above, you'll need use same capitalization down here. likewise, builtin keywords , functions in lowercase (if, else, print(), etc.). finally, in python 3 print function, not statement, you'll need parentheses ( ) around arguments:

if square < 160:     print("really young people") else:     print("square of sum > 160") 

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so, here's complete python 3 code:

a = int(input("enter age")) b = int(input("sibling's age")) square = a**2 + b**2 + 2*a*b if square < 160:     print("really young people") else:     print("square of sum > 160")