[Tutor] finding square roots

[Eric Brunson]

Elaine wrote:
> Does anyone know which is the more efficient way of
> finding a square root in Python:
>
> sqrt(x)          or       x ** 0.5
>   

I dunno, let's check:

 >>> import timeit
 >>> t = timeit.Timer( "12 ** .5" )
 >>> print t.timeit(10000000)
2.29147315025
 >>> t = timeit.Timer( "sqrt(12)", "from math import sqrt" )
 >>> print t.timeit(10000000)
7.17679214478

Looks like ** is about three times faster than sqrt(), but that could be 
the function overhead.

> ???
>
> Thanks,
>      Elaine
>
>
>        
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