Square Root

[Angus Hammond]

Is there a way to get an accurate square root?
This means that a negative number should return the appropriate complex
number. I have been having some trouble with this in a program that
solves quadratic equations recently. Ideally but not necessarily it
should be able to get the square root of complex numbers as well.
NB Neither -2**0.5 or Math::sqrt(-2) return appropriate answers. (-2 and
an error respectively)
Thanks in advance.

 

[Jean-Julien Fleck]

Hello Angus,

Is there a way to get an accurate square root?
This means that a negative number should return the appropriate complex
number. I have been having some trouble with this in a program that solve= s
quadratic equations recently. Ideally but not necessarily it should be ab= le
to get the square root of complex numbers as well.
NB Neither -2**0.5 or Math::sqrt(-2) return appropriate answers. (-2 and = an
error respectively)

require 'complex'
include Math
c =3D Complex(-2,0)
sqrt(c)
=3D> Complex(0.0, 1.4142135623731)

Cheers,

--=20
JJ Fleck
PCSI1 Lyc=E9e Kl=E9ber

 

[Angus Hammond]

Thanks I had tried require complex and Math::sqrt but only separately.
Thanks again.
Angus

 

[jzakiya]

Thanks I had tried require complex and Math::sqrt but only separately.
Thanks again.
Angus

FYI. For more extensive (and easy) way to add the ability
to find the nth roots of all numerical types check out
my Roots module here:

http://gist.github.com/422636

Jabari