What Does Scope Mean

From python reference manual: A scope defines the visibility of a name within a block. If a local variable is defined in a block, its scope includes that block. and When a nam

Solution 1:

@Martjin Pieters clarifications and answers are awesome, but I'd like to add that beyond python, scope is a computer science/programming concept that spans across basically all programming languages currently in use.

To learn more about what scope is, generally, aside from in python, I'd start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_(computer_science)

Many languages, including python, follow the same set of basic scoping rules, but the details can be different between languages. Thus, if you're really asking "what is scope?" then starting at a general source may be more useful than learning the intricacies of python's scoping (at least at first).