einstein.py check50 says I am returning '2'

Question

Check50 says I am returning '2' but I do not think this is the case. I have also tried changing the order in which I print/return to see if it is expecting something different the error messages are all the same. Bellow is the code and the check50 output

C_LIGHT = 300000000

def main():
    ##prompt the user for input
    ##assuming the user inputs integer per instructions
    user_in = int(input("Input a mass in kg to Calculate E=Mc^2\n"))
    print(mass_to_energy(user_in))

def mass_to_energy(user_in):
    ##Calculating e=mc^2
    ## outputs the equivalent number of Joules as an integer
    ##print(user_in * (C_LIGHT ** 2))
    return (user_in * (C_LIGHT ** 2))

main()

Results for cs50/problems/2022/python/einstein generated by check50 v3.3.8
:) einstein.py exists
:( input of 1 yields output of 90000000000000000
    expected "90000000000000...", not "2"
    Seems like your output might not be the right number!
:( input of 14 yields output of 1260000000000000000
    expected "12600000000000...", not "2"
    Seems like your output might not be the right number!
:( input of 50 yields output of 4500000000000000000
    expected "45000000000000...", not "2"
    Seems like your output might not be the right number!

Answer 1

You have a few minor problems which may be causing your failure:

• in your print statement you should be converting the result of the math to a string:
  print(str(mass_to_energy(user_in)))

• The program expects specific prompts for input and output before the numbers and you are not providing those prompts, that may or may not cause an issue.

• This is more of an improvement but if you are going to write a main function you should have it called conditionally so that your file can be imported properly this will help you later, and might not impact this problem passing the test

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Answer 2

Figured out the problem!!! My original prompt read: "Input a mass in kg to Calculate E=Mc^2" , and I have to look into WHY but the ^2 was causing problems. I changed my code to "Input a mass in kg to Calculate E=Mc*c" and it's fixed