Should numpy.sqrt(-1) return 1j rather than nan?

Stefan van der Walt stefan at sun.ac.za
Thu Oct 12 10:28:28 EDT 2006


On Thu, Oct 12, 2006 at 08:58:21AM -0500, Greg Willden wrote:
> On 10/11/06, Bill Baxter <wbaxter at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>     On 10/12/06, Greg Willden <gregwillden at gmail.com> wrote:
>     > Speed should not take precedence over correctness.
> 
>     Unless your goal is speed.  Then speed should take precedence over
>     correctness.
> 
> 
> Huh?
> Person 1:  "Hey you should use function X."
> Person 2:  "No, it doesn't give me the correct answer."
> Person 1: "Who cares?  It's fast!"
> 
> What kind of logic is that?

I tried to explain the argument at

http://www.scipy.org/NegativeSquareRoot

Cheers
Stéfan

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