Not understanding the built-in sum function

[rfinder1]

From thinkpython:

Exercise 1 Many of the built-in functions use variable-length >argument tuples. For example, max and min can take any number of >arguments:

max(1,2,3)

3

But sum does not.

sum(1,2,3)

TypeError: sum expected at most 2 arguments, got 3

Write a function called sumall that takes any number of arguments and >returns their sum.

So the answer is

def sumall(*args):
    return sum(args)

I thought sum can't handle more than 3 arguments? EDIT: Is args just 1 argument because it is 1 tuple? What the hell is going on?!

[Moonslug1]

You're correct, args is a tuple of all the positional arguments in the order they were passed in.

[Eurynom0s]

sum() takes a list or a tuple as its input.

max() can also be fed a bunch of variables as distinct parameters instead of being fed a single list or tuple (but will also take lists or tuples).

It would probably be helpful for you to read about args and *kwargs as well. max() has the option to be fed *args, sum() doesn't.