Python is a modern, robust, high level programming language. It is very easy to pick up even if you are completely new to programming.
Mac OS X and Linux comes pre installed with python. Windows users can download python from https://www.python.org/downloads/ .
To install IPython run,
$ pip install ipython[all]
This will install all the necessary dependencies for the notebook, qtconsole, tests etc.
From the terminal
ipython notebook
In Canopy and Anaconda, Open the respective terminals and execute the above.
Launch ipython notebook from the folder which contains the notebooks. Open each one of them
Cell > All Output > Clear
This will clear all the outputs and now you can understand each statement and learn interactively.