On Oct 17, 8:03 am, Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [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 is part of the story -- the other part is that the story differs depending on whether x is positive or negative. > > This being Python, and an interactive interpreter being available, you > can always just try it: > > >>> -3 ** -4.1111 > -0.010927147607830808 Steve, Trying to memorise the operator precedence table for each of several languages was never a good idea. I admit advanced age :-) and give up and use parentheses, just like the OP did: >>> (-3)**-4.11111 Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: negative number cannot be raised to a fractional power Best regards, John -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
