The ^^ operator doesn't do anything with fractional powers. One reason for
that is that they are not unique. For example, there are infinitely many
solutions <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root_of_a_matrix>; to
a^^2=ident(2); one infinite family is matrix([1,0],[%r1,-1]) for arbitrary
%r1. I don't believe there is any standard definition of a "principal
value" of the matrix square root in general.
-s
On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:30 AM, Evan Cooch <evan.cooch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "? matrix" is your friend. It's not clear exactly what you did, but the
> documentation there says that A^2 squares the elements of a matrix, but
> A^^2 is the matrix product of A and A, which is probably what you
> wanted.
>
> Ray
>
> Thank you. A^^2 is indeed what I wanted.
>>
>>
>>
>
> That approach seems to work fine, so long as you are interested in integer
> powers of a matrix (which seems to be the case here). The approach I posted
> earlier is more general. Suppose, for example, you want the square-root of
> A? A^^(0.5) doesn't evaluate.
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