Jussi Piitulainen jpiitula at ling.helsinki.fi
Thu Feb 11 07:37:45 EST 2010

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Terrence Cole writes:

> Can someone explain to me what python is doing here?
> 
> Python 3.1.1 (r311:74480, Feb  3 2010, 13:36:47) 
> [GCC 4.3.4] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> -0.1 ** 0.1
> -0.7943282347242815
> >>> a = -0.1; b = 0.1
> >>> a ** b
> (0.7554510437117542+0.2454609236416552j)
> >>> -abs(a ** b)
> -0.7943282347242815
> 
> Why does the literal version return the signed magnitude and the
> variable version return a complex?

The minus sign is not part of the literal syntax. Python takes the
expression as -(0.1 ** 0.1), the binary operator binding tighter than
the unary.

Try (-0.1) ** 0.1, and try a = 0.1, then -a ** 0.1.

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