Understanding powers and indices (simply)

[OldMoses]

Raising a number to the ^ 2.5 is the same as raising a number to the ^5 and then taking the square root of that result. It's just a decimal representation of a rational number 5/2

Code: (Select All)

a = 2 ^ 5
PRINT a
a = SQR(a)
PRINT a
b = 2 ^ 2.5
PRINT b
c = 2 ^ (5 / 2)
PRINT c

I've never done it, but I suppose there are uses.



That said, the fractional form is probably better for something like a cube root, which would be  # ^ (1/3) which has an endlessly repeating decimal. It's best left to the machine to do it to its best ability rather than type .3333333333......