Question

I decided to learn the mathematica programming langauge recently, and have been wondering:

What is the difference between "=" and"=="

Answer 1

when you a=5, it means you assign 5 to a.
When you say
a^2 - 5 a + 3 ==0, it means what are the values of a that satisfies the equation
a^2 - 5 a + 3 =0

Answer 2

If you issue the command
Solve[a^2 - 5 a + 3 ==0,a]
\[
\left\{\left\{a\to \frac{1}{2}
\left(5-\sqrt{13}\right)\right\},\left\{
a\to \frac{1}{2}
\left(5+\sqrt{13}\right)\right\}\right\}
\]

Answer 3

Ok, this makes since, thanks.