I like Jason's idea (specifically real_nth_root) as a method. However, to me the real issue is plotting. If someone tries to get a cube root of -1 and gets a complex number, at least they see there is an output! And then someone can help them understand why they get that answer.
But there is a well-defined real plot for the cube root of x, with domain the whole real line, and Sage should somehow be able to better than what is in the plot documentation (from all our previous discussions): sage: plot(lambda x : RR(x).nth_root(3), (x,-1, 1)) I hesitate to say we should be able to globally import and have something like sage: plot(real_nth_root(x,3), (x,-1,1)) and afaict having semantics to check for every case out there like when plotting x^(2/3)+x^(1/3) would be ridiculous. Plus I'm not even sure Python/Sage allow us to "call" functions partly and then plot them, based on previous discussions here. But any idea for how to make this class of plots a little more straightforward (i.e. doable in one command without lambdas or semicolons) would be very helpful. - kcrisman --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-support@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-support-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
