Ans and ^ (1/3)

[Han]

(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.

Use Textbook mode and enter in -8 raised to the power of 1/3 via the template key. Then, after the calculator returns the result, change to algebraic entry. Tap the screen to copy the expression into the command line and you will see how it evaluates your original expression. The reason you got -2 was because it's parsed as -8^(1/3) and not (-8)^(1/3). Nevermind, you used nthroot and not the power template.