CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptmathinfinity
Hahi
Hahi

Reputation: 121

Math.pow and Infinity

There are seven indeterminate forms in maths. Most of them returns NaN in JavaScript. But when i try: 

Math.pow( 0, 0 )

or

Math.pow( Infinity, 0 )

it returns:

1

Is this some kind of bug?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1750

Answers (3)

orlp
orlp

Reputation: 117681

No, because anything to the power of zero is one.

Not only is this easier to implement, it is mathematically correct (some mathematicians say pow(0, 0) is undefined, but general convention is to take pow(x, 0) == 1 for any x).

On top of that it is in the specification (link officialy stolen from primvdb): http://es5.github.com/#x15.8.2.13

Upvotes: 5

Alberto De Caro
Alberto De Caro

Reputation: 5213

No, it is not a bug. This behaviour is compliance with the ECMA definition of Javascript.

Upvotes: 1

pimvdb
pimvdb

Reputation: 154828

That's what the specification says, so it's not a bug:

2. If y is +0, the result is 1, even if x is NaN.

Upvotes: 5

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