----- Original Message -----
> The following two functions return the same result:
> 
>     x**2
>     x*x
> 
> But they may be computed in different ways.  The first choice can
> accommodate non-integer powers and so it would logically proceed by
> taking a logarithm, multiplying by the power (in this case, 2), and
> then taking the anti-logarithm.  But for a trivial value for the
> power like 2, this is clearly a wasteful choice.  Just multiply x by
> itself, and skip the expensive log and anti-log steps.
> 
> My question is, what do Python interpreters do with power operators
> where the power is a small constant, like 2?  Do they know to take
> the shortcut?
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

It is probably specific to the interpreter implementation(cython, jython, iron 
python etc...). You'd better optimize it yourself should you really care about 
this.
An alternative is to use numpy functions, like numpy.power, they are optimized 
version of most mathematical functions.

JM


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