Python 2 times slower than Perl

[Xu, C.S.]

Speed issue is due to recently I helped my classmate to do a
calculation on his study. The calc. time increases as ~ 2^n,
where n is number of particle pairs (2 particle forms a bond
called a pair). In python, n=15 already took me 10 minutes to
get the result. So I am curious what improvement I can obtain
if I change the code into C/C++. According to my previous
experiences, NumericPy doesn't give much more speed as claimed.
I remember it is only about 2 times faster than original python.

And wxPython author says: "Java gives you garbage? Try wxPython."
So I became also interested in the speed difference between
Java and Python.

Anyway, thanks for all comments. I've ever considered Python
was always 2 times slower than Perl everywhere (it is true on
my working SunOS, :-( ), now I'm corrected.

Regards,