From: Fleck Jean-Julien <jeanjulien.fleck@...>
Date: 2009-12-19T02:02:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Math errors

> That is WRONG, you cannot do that.

Well, I never said that you should do that, I just explained how Ruby
interpreted it...

> That only works for odd roots of negative numbers.
> The even root of negative numbers are imaginary.
>
> -27**3**-1 => -3 **correct
> -27**2**-1 => -5.19615242270663 **WRONG, its 5.196152i

Sure. That's quite a hint why ** does not accept a negative number
with a non integer exponent. To take into account all the special
cases, you should first see if your exponent is a rational and in that
case, see if the denominator is odd (after all due simplifications of
course). In this case (and only this case), you could try to decipher
a root for this negative number.

Cheers,

-- 
JJ Fleck
PCSI1 Lycée Kléber