|
What do these symbols mean?
05-16-2011, 09:34 PM
|
#1
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: irradiated - too close to the nuclear furnace
Posts: 1,294
|
What do these symbols mean?
I've seen these many times (now in the include a pension in net worth thread) but I have no idea what they mean.
** and ^
Could you provide an example using real numbers?
Thanks.
|
|
|
|
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!
Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
|
05-16-2011, 09:47 PM
|
#2
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,227
|
Both are the exponent sign. 10**2 = 10x10 = 100. In the pension thread I had it as part of the equation for discounting future values, for example discounting 3 years at 4% as (1.04^3) which is 1.04 to the 3rd power or 1.04*1.04*1.04 or 1.124864.
|
|
|
05-16-2011, 10:13 PM
|
#3
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: yonder
Posts: 2,851
|
And now you know.
|
|
|
05-16-2011, 10:33 PM
|
#4
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: irradiated - too close to the nuclear furnace
Posts: 1,294
|
Thank you!
|
|
|
05-17-2011, 07:19 AM
|
#5
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
|
The "**" sign as exponentiation should look familiar if we have any FORTRAN programmers out there...
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
|
|
|
05-17-2011, 08:58 AM
|
#6
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 6,695
|
The ** symbol for exponentials is not limited to Fortran. I programmed in SAS for 23 years and that was how I indicated raising a number to a power.
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
|
|
|
05-17-2011, 09:35 AM
|
#7
|
Administrator
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Pacific NW
Posts: 6,178
|
The asterisk may also be a replacement character inserted by the forum software in lieu of four letter words
|
|
|
05-17-2011, 09:55 AM
|
#8
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,684
|
And the ** was used in lieu of the caret (^) in the olden days when the caret was not generally available. And just for a little nostalgia, there was a time when some character sets DID NOT HAVE LOWER CASE.
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Quick Links
|
|
|