Power¶
Power[2, 3]¶
2 raised to the power of 3 equals 8.
Power[5, 0]¶
Any number raised to the power of 0 equals 1.
0^0¶
0 raised to 0 is Indeterminate.
$ wo 'Power[0, 0]'
0
Power::indet: Indeterminate expression 0 encountered.
.* (regex*)
Indeterminate
Power[2, -1]¶
2 raised to the power of -1 equals 0.5 (½).
Power[4, 0.5]¶
4 raised to the power of 0.5 equals 2 (square root).
Power[10, 2]¶
10 raised to the power of 2 equals 100.
Power[-2, 3]¶
-2 raised to the power of 3 equals -8.
Power[-2, 2]¶
-2 raised to the power of 2 equals 4.
Power[27, 1/3]¶
27 raised to the power of ⅓ equals approximately 3 (cube root).
Power[1.5, 2.5]¶
1.5 raised to the power of 2.5 equals approximately 2.756.
A base outside the unit circle diverges — to Infinity only when it is a
positive real — while one inside it vanishes:
Any base on the unit circle never settles:
$ wo '(-1)^Infinity'
Infinity
Infinity::indet: Indeterminate expression (-1) encountered.
Indeterminate
An infinite base raises its direction, so Sqrt[-Infinity] points along the
imaginary axis:
$ wo '{(-Infinity)^(1/2), DirectedInfinity[I]^2, Infinity^Infinity}'
{DirectedInfinity[I], -Infinity, ComplexInfinity}
A negative base with a rational exponent splits its sign off as (-1)^(p/q),
and the radical merge folds that sign back into the radicand — so the answer
keeps a negative base exactly when nothing can be extracted:
$ wo '{(-2)^(1/3), (-8)^(1/3), (-24)^(1/3), (-12)^(1/3)}'
{(-2)^(1/3), 2*(-1)^(1/3), 2*(-3)^(1/3), (-3)^(1/3)*2^(2/3)}
Half-integer exponents collapse to I:
Powers of one base add their exponents whatever its sign, while different bases merge under a shared exponent only while their principal values still line up — which allows at most one negative base:
$ wo '{(-1)^(1/3) (-1)^(2/3), 2^(1/3) 2^(1/2), (-1)^(1/3) 2^(1/3), (-2)^(1/3) (-1)^(1/3)}'
{-1, 2^(5/6), (-2)^(1/3), (-2)^(1/3)*(-1)^(1/3)}
^ binds tighter than a leading minus, so -2 ^ 2 is -(2^2) rather than
(-2)^2 — spacing around the ^ makes no difference:
Group explicitly to negate the base:
An integer raised to a negative power is the exact reciprocal, however large the denominator gets:
It stays exactly positive even below the range of a machine number: