whats up with the "falsey"

I got this to work after playing with it a bit:

import random
start=5
def even_odd(num):
    # If % 2 is 0, the number is even.
    # Since 0 is falsey, we have to invert it with not.
    return not num % 2
while start:
    number=random.randint(1,99)
    if even_odd(number)==1:
        print("{} is even".format(number))
    else:
        print("{} is odd".format(number))
    start-=1

I'm not entirely sure I understand what your question is, but there is an issue I see right away in your code:

start -=

should have something after the equal sign, i.e.

start -= 1

What you probably meant to use as the statement for the while loop is while start is not None notice the not as we want to end the loop as soon as start becomes 0, BUT what you need to understand is None and 0 are NOT the same thing in fact they are quite different, 0 represents an integer with value 0, but None keyword implies absence of any value inside a variable so using while start is not None is actually wrong as we want to end the loop as soon as start reaches 0 not when start becomes 'empty'. Don't forget the colon after every block (you missed out after the while statement) and indent the line start -= 1 so that it is inside the while loop as we want start to decrement with every iteration of the loop and not after the loop is executed.

Alright, last step but it's a big one. Make a while loop that runs until start is falsey. Inside the loop, use random.randint(1, 99) to get a random number between 1 and 99. If that random number is even (use even_odd to find out), print "{} is even", putting the random number in the hole. Otherwise, print "{} is odd", again using the random number. Finally, decrement start by 1. I know it's a lot, but I know you can do it!

Oops! It looks like Task 1 is no longer passing. Get Help Recheck work Go to task One even.py

1 import random 2 ​ 3 start = 5 4 ​ 5 def even_odd(num): 6 # If % 2 is 0, the number is even. 7 # Since 0 is falsey, we have to invert it with not. 8 return not num % 2 9 while start != 0: 10 num = random.randint(1,99) 11

12 if even_odd(num) == 0: 13 print("{} is even!").format(num) 14 else: 15 print("{} is odd!").format(num) 16 start -= 1

I've tried is not and != and it keeps referring to task 1 failing

I keep getting the same error "task 1 failing" I cut and copy the code and burn my way back through the import that was there already then it passes. I do he same thing for the second task and it passes, but then I past back in the rest of my code and the interpreter starts spitting back errors about 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'format', or the fucntion which is clearly defined not being defined... I even tried moving the function def above the while loop but that doesnt work either

In the context of this challenge, could someone please explain how:

1)

while start:

is different than

2)

while start == True:

AND how

3)

while start != True:

is different than 1) and 2)?

I get that 1) is shorthand for saying "While Start is True", I don't get why 2) is False when start = 5, and I don't get why 3) runs 4 times through the While loop in this challenge. Can't quite tell what's going on.

Thanks!

Put another way, when you compare something to True or NOT True, its looking for strictly On or Off, 1 vs O. Its weird but when you use the shorthand its not as strict??? If you really want to go down the rabbit whole start playing around with negative numbers.... some of this stuff is enough to make you bleed from the nose