The xth root of y on the hp 35s - Printable Version +- HP Forums (https://archived.hpcalc.org/museumforum) +-- Forum: HP Museum Forums (https://archived.hpcalc.org/museumforum/forum-1.html) +--- Forum: Old HP Forum Archives (https://archived.hpcalc.org/museumforum/forum-2.html) +--- Thread: The xth root of y on the hp 35s (/thread-151223.html) |
The xth root of y on the hp 35s - Quan - 05-30-2009 While quickly going through the first few chapters of the manual to get acquainted with the 35s, I came across an example on page 4-3 which shows the calculation of 3th root of -125 to be -5. This perked my interest since I was under the impression that taking any xth root of a negative number is not possible on the 35s. I performed the example, then tried calculating the xth of a handful of negative numbers. Conclusion? It only works if x is odd (and y can be any negative real numbers). If x is even, it will fail. The only condition mentioned on the page is that for y<0, x must be an integer. Can someone tell me why? My guess is that the condition should be for y<0, x must be an even integer.
Thanks.
Re: The xth root of y on the hp 35s - Karl Schneider - 05-30-2009 Quan -- "x-th root of y" on the HP-35s (and its predecessors HP-33s and HP-32SII) has a real-valued range and real-valued domain of x and y. The negative real-valued odd root of a negative number can be obtained. However, complex-valued roots cannot be obtained with the function, and complex-valued inputs are invalid. The domain and range of "y^x" do encompass complex numbers, but there are some peculiarities. Please see the following archived posts: "x_root_y" and real vs. complex roots 35s complex-number functionality -- KS
Edited: 30 May 2009, 11:12 p.m.
xth root of y - Hal Bitton in Boise - 05-31-2009 Hi Quan
Re: xth root of y - Quan - 06-01-2009 Karl, Hal: Thanks for the informative responses. I sometimes forgot and expected more from HP calculators to give me the answers. Regards, Quan
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