I found the following information in the guidebook for the TI BA II PLUS Professional:
Quote:
Universal Power [y^x]
Press [y^x] to raise the displayed positive number to any power (for example, 2^-5 or 2^(1/3)).
Note: Because the reciprocal of an even number (such as, 1/2, 1/4, 1/6) is a complex number, you can only raise a negative number to an integer power or the reciprocal of an odd number.
The note is plain wrong. I found the text first in the German translation and already complained to TI; I was assuming a translation error but the translation is perfectly correct: just the same nonsense.
I'm not a native speaker: Is it possible/advisable to place the word "only" in the last sentence after "negative number" instead of before "raise"? In German that would make at least the last sentence correct.
To become a little more on topic: Have you seen similar mistakes in HP manuals?
Edited: 29 Nov 2005, 4:44 a.m.