conda – Conflicting versions of python used on my computer

I’m a new python programmer and I’m currently having a problem configuring python versions on my machine (macbook pro).

The problem is as follows:

The python –version command returns version 3.8.9.
This means that the version of python installed on my system is 3.8.9.

python --version
Python 3.8.9
(base) 

The whereis python command tells me that my python is located here :

whereis python  
python: /Users/my-name/miniconda3/bin/python
(base) 

Then I create an environment called py310env with python version 3.10, with the command

conda create -n py310env python=3.10

I go to the py310env environment I’ve created, with the conda activate py310env command.

conda activate py310env
(py310env) 

The python -version command displays version 3.8.9

python --version                    
Python 3.8.9
(py310env)

And the whereis python command tells me that my python version is here:

whereis python                      
python: /Users/my-name/miniconda3/envs/py310env/bin/python
(py310env)

I don’t understand why version 3.8.9 is still used even in my new environment in which I specified version 3.10.

Can you please explain and help me correct this problem?

It’s also possible that I’ve installed python several times, in different ways or in different places, without really understanding. How can I clean this up?

Thanks for your help.