This is an extremely easy question for Python. It's very basic Python as I'm still a beginner... to take a number, use a function and square it:

import math
nmb = int(raw_input("Enter a number to be squared: "))
def square(nmb):y = math.pow(nmb,2)return y
print str(nmb) + " squared is equal to " + str(square)

I've jiggered it around a few times, but the end result always prints something like "5 squared is equal to function square at 0x02BC87B0" instead of the result

I feel like I'm missing something really obvious, as my understanding of functions is still quite basic, but any pointers would set me on my way!

You are passing the function square, not the return value of a call to square, to str. You want this:

print str(nmb) + " squared is equal to " + str(square(nmb))