code: def table2val_matrix(table):
      
      if not is_simpletable(table):
          raise NotSimpleTable("Not able read a cell in the table as a string")
      rows = []
      for tr in table('tr'):
          row = []
          for td in tr('td'):
              td = tdbr2EOL(td)
              try:
                  val = td.contents[0]
              except IndexError:
                  row.append('')
              else:
                  try:
                      val = float(val)
                      row.append(val)
                  except ValueError:
                      row.append(val)
          rows.append(row)
      return rows
docs: convert a table to a list of lists - a 2D matrix
      Converts numbers to float