On Tuesday February 13 2007 6:17 pm, Ricardo Baltazar Ayala wrote:
> I am using version 2.1 of OpenOffice.org. My problem
> is:
>
> when I use the function potencia(a;1/3) only is valid
> for a>0. The function should accept any value of a.
For English readers this function is POWER(a;1/3). He is looking for the
cube root of the number a. The problem with cube roots of a negative number is
the possibility of the answer being a complex
(a +bi or a - bi) or imaginary number (0 +bi or 0-bi). For example, all answers
to POWER(-1;1/3) are one of these two types. (One answer is -i.) Calc is not
set up to provide these types of numbers as answers.
I just tested the POWER function for POWER(0;1/3). The answer was 0, as it
should be. Likely, P OWER will only work for numbers greater than or equal
to 0. If you want an answer for when a is a negative number (less than zero),
try this =-POWER(ABS(a);1/3). This should works for all odd roots of a
negative number.
Dan
