[MWForum]power vs exp

[Wendy Petti]

Okay, I'll bite!

Power takes two inputs.  It reports the first number, to the power of the
second number:

show power 3 2
9

show power 2 3
8

(3 squared = 3 * 3 = 9.  2 to the 3rd power = 2 * 2 * 2 = 8)

Exp takes one input.  The documentation says "Stands for exponential.
Reports the number to the power of the constant e."    And the constant e is
an irrational number that in the case of MicroWorlds is rounded to a
reasonable number of decimal places.  Frankly even though I play at being a
math cat I had never heard of the constant e until I read about it in the MW
documentation just now and looked it up online to find out what it meant.
Here's a page of info to get you started:

http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/Math/Math-e.htm

The constant e figures into bell-shaped curves, among other things, just as
the constant pi figures into circles.

show exp 1
2.71828182846

As far as I can tell, this means that the documentation is written
incorrectly.  It should say:  "Reports the constant e to the power of the
number."  Shouldn't it?

Wendy


-----Original Message-----
From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
[mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Knope
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 7:43 PM
To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
Subject: [MWForum]power vs exp


Calling all Mathcats...

Can anyone clarify for me the distinction between the MW primitives "power"
and "exp" (exponent)?

Thanks, Jeff