Steps to reproduce the error

>>> import math
>>> 1/math.log(math.pow(30,0.5),2) == 2/math.log(30,2)
True
>>> 1/math.log(math.pow(9,0.5),2) == 2/math.log(9,2)
True
>>> 1/math.log(math.pow(15,0.5),2) == 2/math.log(15,2)
True
>>> 1/math.log(math.pow(8,0.5),2) == 2/math.log(8,2)
False
>>> 2/math.log(8,2)
0.6666666666666666
>>> 1/math.log(math.pow(8,0.5),2) 
0.6666666666666665

I reproduced the error in Python :
Python 3.5.3
and
Python 2.7.13

This isn't a bug: floating-point arithmetic is by its nature approximate, and two sequences of operations that would mathematically give the same result need not give the same result with floating-point.

I'd recommend a read of this portion of the tutorial, which goes into some of the issues involved: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/floatingpoint.html

Having said that, you'll get slightly better accuracy in general (one can't make specific guarantees, since everything's dependent on the platform's math library) if you use `math.sqrt(x)` instead of `math.pow(x, 0.5)`, and `math.log2(y)` instead of `math.log(y, 2)`.

stage: resolved