Bizarre arithmetic results

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-02-11, Terrence Cole <list-sink at trainedmonkeystudios.org> wrote:
> Can someone explain to me what python is doing here?
>
> Python 3.1.1 (r311:74480, Feb  3 2010, 13:36:47) 
> [GCC 4.3.4] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> -0.1 ** 0.1
> -0.7943282347242815
>>>> a = -0.1; b = 0.1
>>>> a ** b
> (0.7554510437117542+0.2454609236416552j)
>>>> -abs(a ** b)
> -0.7943282347242815
>
> Why does the literal version return the signed magnitude and the
> variable version return a complex?

Didn't we just do this one last week?

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