> Does Python handle matrix math as well?

If you're playing around interactively, it's a bit easier to write (in Matlab)

    m = [1 0 0 ; 0 0 -1 ; 0 1 0]

than (in Python)

    m = np.array([[1, 0, 0], [0, 0, -1], [0, 1, 0]])

Also a bit longer example:

    m = rand(3,4)
    a = [0.1 0.2 0.3]
    m \ a'

versus

    m = np.random.rand(3,4)
    a = np.array([0.1, 0.2, 0.3])
    np.linalg.lstsq(m, a.T)
    wtf?
    google...
    fine!
    a = np.array([[0.1, 0.2, 0.3]])
    np.linalg.lstsq(m, a.T)

But if you're developing software, you can't really easily and reliably deploy Matlab or Octave to run in the cloud in your production systems, whereas Python you can.