from math import exp #def f(x): # return exp(x) f = lambda x: exp(x) # f(x) df = lambda x: exp(x) # f'(x) a = 1 exact = df(a) for k in range(1, 15): h = 10**(-k) approx = (f(a+h)-f(a))/h error = abs(exact - approx) print "h: %3e error: %5e" %(h, error)