How do I view python modules? They are .so files and PyCharm does not recognize how to open them

Question

I want to read how some of the modules work. I thought they would be .py files which could teach me the inner workings of then. However when I import a module it says it is coming from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/lib-dynload/math.cpython-36m-darwin.so

I went to the lib-dynload folder under external libraries in PyCharm but these module files are all '.so' files.

What is a .so file?

How can I view a .so file and learn about the code within it?

If it isn't obvious I am very new to python so please be descriptive with your answer.

Answer 1

.so files are native shared libraries. They are written in C rather than Python. If you're curious about them, you can look at Python's source code .