[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Does anyone know of an approximation to raising a negative base to a > fractional exponent? For example, (-3)^-4.11111 since this cannot be > computed without using imaginary numbers. Any help is appreciated. > A couple of questions.
1. How do you approximate a complex number in the reals? That doesn't make sense. 2. x ^ -4.1111 = 1 / (x ^ 4.1111), so where do complex numbers enter into this anyway? 3. I think you will find the complex numbers start to emerge as you explore fractional exponents. This being Python, and an interactive interpreter being available, you can always just try it: >>> -3 ** -4.1111 -0.010927147607830808 >>> -1 ** -2 -1.0 >>> (-1+0j) ** (-2) (1+0j) >>> (-1+0j) ** (0.5) (6.123233995736766e-17+1j) >>> (-3 + 0j) ** (-4.1111 + 0j) (0.010268290423601775-0.0037369461622949107j) >>> regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden Sorry, the dog ate my .sigline so I couldn't cat it -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
