When x is a positive integer,
y is multiplied by itself x
times.
When x is a negative integer,
the inverse of y is multiplied by itself x
times.
Operands:
y is a scalar or array.
x is a dimensionless scalar. In the case of matrix
y, x must be an integer. In the
case of dimensioned y, x must be an integer or a rational number which is a multiple
of 1/60, and must be called explicitly in the exponent
placeholder, not as a variable name.
Note:
In the case where y is e,
a different, more accurate algorithm is used, which suffers less from roundoff
errors in the case of very large or small exponents. The most accurate values
for very large exponents of e can be found by using
symbolic evaluation of exp(x)
with a decimal argument, for example, exp(1.0) → 2.7182818284590452354.
