The pow()
method computes the power of a number by raising the second argument to the power of the first argument.
Example
// computes 52
let power = Math.pow(5, 2);
console.log(power);
// Output: 25
pow() Syntax
The syntax of the Math.pow()
method is:
Math.pow(number, power)
Here, pow()
is a static method. Hence, we are accessing the method using the class name, Math
.
pow() Parameters
The pow()
method takes two parameters:
number
- the base value that is raised to a certainpower
power
- the exponent value that raisesnumber
pow() Return Value
The pow()
method returns:
- numberpower,
number
raised to a certainpower
- 1 if value of
power
is 0 - 0 if value of
number
is 0
Note: If the argument is a non-numeric string, the result will be NaN (Not a Number).
Example 1: JavaScript Math.pow() with Integer Parameters
// pow() with positive arguments
let power1 = Math.pow(5, 3);
console.log(power1);
// pow() with negative arguments
let power2 = Math.pow(-4, -2);
console.log(power2);
// Output:
// 125
// 80.44885596939699
Here,
Math.pow(5, 3)
- computes 53Math.pow(-4, -2)
- computes -4-2
Example 2: Math.pow() with Zero Arguments
// number with zero power
let power1 = Math.pow(4, 0);
console.log(power2);
// zero raised to a positive power
let power2 = Math.pow(0, 5);
console.log(power2);
// zero raised to negative power
let power3 = Math.pow(0, -3);
console.log(power3);
// Output:
// 1
// 0
// Infinity
Here,
Math.pow(4, 0)
- computes 40 (equals to 1)Math.pow(0, 5)
- computes 05 (equals to 0)Math.pow(0, -3)
- computes 0-3 (equals Infinity)
Example 3: Math.pow() with Floating Point Parameters
// power of floating point numbers
let power1 = Math.pow(4.5, 2.3);
console.log(power1);
// power of negative number with floating point
let power2 = Math.pow(-8, 4.3);
console.log(power2);
// Output:
// 31.7971929089206
// NaN
The pow()
method can calculate the power value when both arguments are positive floating point numbers as shown in the example above.
But if we use a floating point power argument with any type of negative number, the pow()
method returns NaN as the output.
Example 4: Math.pow() with String Arguments
// pow() numeric string
let power1 = Math.pow("6", "2");
console.log(power1);
// Output: 36
// pow() with non-numeric string
let power2 = Math.pow("Harry", "Potter");
console.log(power2);
// Output: NaN
In the above example, we have used the pow() method with string arguments. Here,
Math.pow("6", "2")
- converts the numeric string to numbers and computes the powerMath.pow("Harry", "Potter")
- cannot compute the power of a non-numeric string and returns NaN
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