On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Erik Max Francis wrote: > Steven D'Aprano wrote: > >> The square root of 1 is +1 (the negative root being explicitly >> rejected). Pure mathematicians, who may be expected to care whether the >> root is the integer 1 or the real number 1, are unlikely to write >> 1**0.5, prefering the squareroot symbol. >> >> For the rest of us, including applied mathematicians, 1**0.5 implies >> floating point, which implies the correct answer is 1.0. >> >> So I don't really know what point you are making. What solution(s) for >> 1**0.5 were you expecting? > > He's probably getting at the fact that if you're dealing with complex > numbers, square root get a lot more complicated: > > http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SquareRoot.html > > But still, that doesn't change the fact that x**0.5 as is meant here is > the principal (positive) real square root, and that can be true whether > your hierarchy of numeric types includes a complex type or not.
Er, actually, i meant to write -1, but evidently missed a key, and failed to check what i'd written. But excellent discussion there, chaps! All shall have medals! tom -- Taking care of business -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
