Confusing math problem

[Schizoid Man]

"Dave Angel" <davea at davea.name> wrote

> One other test:
>
> diff = set(map(int, result1)).symmetric_difference(set(result2))
> if diff:
>     print diff
>     print len(diff)
>
> shows me a diff set of 15656 members.  One such member:
>
> 13552527156068805425093160010874271392822265625000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000L

These are the results I got for len(diff): Windows machines: 15656, Mac: 
15693. Someone mentioned something about processor algorithms on this thread 
and I do have a x86 Mac, so in terms of processors it's a like-for-like 
comparison.

I have a follow-up question: are ** and pow() identical?