Question

Is it me, or is assignment 1 a huge jump from assignment 0? I just don't know where to start?

Answer 1

It definitely is a jump, but the hints they give are actually pretty useful.

A good starting point for your code will be to write down (in english) what defines a prime and how you will test for it using the python tools you have (modulo division is their suggestion in hint #3). Once you have it in English, try to convert it to python syntax. That will be more or less the "engine" of your program.

Once you write that code, you will need to figure out how to run numbers through it until you reach the 1000th prime. The word "until" (or the words "while" or "for...each") indicate that you'll need to write some kind of loop, so that the program keeps going until some condition is met. In this case, that condition is obviously that you've found the 1000th prime. You'll need to think about how the program will know that it's found this.

From there, Problem 2 really is only a slight tweak of problem 1 (involving adding a bit of math and a bit of generalizing your code). It's probably best to start a new thread for each question.

Answer 2

It is a bit of jump. If you're feeling intimidated at all I would recommend doing this along with another basic programming course. Learn Python the Hard Way has helped me when I ever I get stuck on something. Sometimes you just need something to be explained in a different way for it to make sense.

Answer 3

Thanks for your help on this, I will try your suggestions and endeavor to get this done.