Ans and ^ (1/3)

[BartDB]

(03-31-2015 07:45 PM)John Colvin Wrote:  

(03-31-2015 09:46 AM)BartDB Wrote:  > It might be something to do with raising the number to the 1/3 power vs. taking the cube root.

No, it has to do with operator precedence of a typed in number vs. a variable. See my other post.

In RPN mode, in the first case you place -8 on level-2 and 1/3 on the level-1 and press x^y which results in (level-2)^(level-1), i.e. again -8 is the level-2 variable as a whole.
In the second case you are entering an equation like format so again power before minus.

Best regards.

I see your point, however if I use the nth root template(accessed from the C key) and take the cube root of -8, I get -2, not the complex root. So in this case I am actually taking the cube root of a negative number-not taking the cube root of a positive number and then negating it.

Sorry, yes you are right, some cube-root and n-root functions have a bit of "cleverness" e.g. see comments in "displayed result" column of http://www.voidware.com/calcs/torture_powers.htm