Powers and Exponentials

Another important class of math functions deals with powers, logarithms, and exponents.

^ operator

This operator, found on the keyboard, is the exponent operator. It will raise a number to a power.

-1, 2, 3

These are shortcuts for the reciprocal, square, and cube of a number, respectively. -1 and 2 can be found on the keyboard, while 3 can be pasted by pressing MATH, 3.

Logarithms: log(, ln(

The log( and ln( functions, both available from the keyboard, will calculate the logarithms to base 10 and base e, respectively.
To get logarithms to other bases, use the following formula:

:log(x)/log(b)

where b is the desired base.

A useful use of log( is to determine how many digits an integer has. An integer n will have

:int(log(abs(n)))+1

digits in base 10.

10^(, e^(, E

These functions can be found on the keyboard, by pressing 2nd plus the respective logarithm key. Of course you could always type these out one character at a time, but using shortcuts takes less bytes. The E (EE on the keypad) denotes and integer power of 10, and is commonly used for scientific notation. E cannot be used with variables or fractional exponents, but it is about twice as fast as 10^(.

Roots: √(, ³√(, ˣ√(

These functions take the square root, cube root, and nth root of a number, respectively.

:5ˣ√(2)

will give the same result as
:2^(1/5)

namely, the 5th root of 2.
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