Please could anyone explain in the below example why the one gets a different answer if depending on whether the number being raised is input directly vs input as a variable?:
>>>print(-2**(1/0.33))
-8.169812850522913
>>>x=-2
>>>print(x**(1/0.33))
(-8.132819305372337-0.7765900841063754j)
Inn addition I'd be very grateful if anyone could explain how to get the first answer but using the second approach
Because of operator precedence (** has a higher precedence than the unary -), your first expression is being evaluated as:
-(2**(1/0.33))
# -8.169812850522913
Whereas in the second case, since you've already defined -2 as a variable, it is evaluated as:
(-2)**(1/0.33)
# (-8.132819305372337-0.7765900841063753j)
Which happens to result in a complex number.
The first case, only the 2 has the exponent, the second case it's '-2'.
(-2)**(1/0.33) should give the second result