I'm required to covert the variable:
pi_string = "3.1415926"
into a float. Here's what I'm dealing with:

I'm required to covert the variable:
pi_string = "3.1415926"
into a float. Here's what I'm dealing with:

Your line should be pi_float = float(pi_string)
float(pi_string) is a float value, you can not assign to it, because it is not a variable.
The method float() will do this for you if pi_string = "3.1415926".
>>>pi_float = float(pi_string)
>>>type(pi_float)
<class 'float'>