[issue29956] math.exp documentation is misleading

Alexander Belopolsky report at bugs.python.org
Fri Mar 31 16:08:37 EDT 2017


New submission from Alexander Belopolsky:

The math.exp(x) function is documented to "Return e**x" <https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html#math.exp>.  This is misleading because even in the simplest case, math.exp(x) is not the same as math.e ** x:

>>> import math
>>> math.exp(2) - math.e ** 2
8.881784197001252e-16

I suggest using e<sup>x instead of e**x to distinguish between Python syntax and mathematical operation and change "Return e**x" to "Return e<sup>x, the base-e exponential of x."

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assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 290937
nosy: belopolsky, docs at python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: math.exp documentation is misleading
versions: Python 3.7

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue29956>
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