title: Square a list (or array?) of numbers in Python
body: <p>I'm coming from a MATLAB background and this simple operation so far seems to be extremely complicated to implement in Python, according to the answers in other stacks. Typically, most answers use a for loop.</p>
  
  <p>The best I've seen so far is </p>
  
  <pre><code>import numpy
  start_list = [5, 3, 1, 2, 4]
  b = list(numpy.array(start_list)**2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a simpler way? </p>