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Title: Raise A to the power of B
Author: Sandro Tosi
Last modified: 2005-04-03
The easiest way to obtain A raised to the power of B, A^B from now, is
this:
exp ( B * ln ( A ) )
let us explain why:
1. exp ( X ) means e^X, e is the Euler number, base of the natural
logarithm, ln.
2. ln ( X ) is the number Y such that e^Y = X;
3. ln ( X^Y ) = Y * ln ( X )
4. e^ln( X ) = X
5. exp ( B * ln ( A ) ) = e^( B * ln ( A ) ) = e^( ln ( A^B ) ) = A^B
If this math is not clear, go and read your high school math books!
Every programming language has these mathematical functions, maybe
with a different name from the ones above. Usually they return
floating point numbers, with no integer equivalence (it's often
useless); but with A and B integer, A^B will be an integer too. In
this situation, use the function ``floor'' (or something equivalent)
that returns the integer part of a float number.