At this point I could claim that I was just the programmer, not the engineer.
And, in fact, it was specifically my job to implement scientific libraries, both
at the Observatory where I worked and in the software I sold. It was also done
at Lotus, but by then I was wise enough to not get involved. Newton's
approximation is used quite often in many areas - it not only does simple roots,
but also general roots of polynomial functions. I used it in one of the last
major programs I wrote - a charting program based 3D animation techniques (you
could spin the pie chart like a top, or do "fly throughs" of 3D bar charts).
The reason the skills I learned on "primitive" computers were still in demand is
that we slow down our modern machines with pigs like Java, yet the customer
demands real-time, 3D response!

Although we don't think about "fourth roots" in day to day life, its easy to
find an example relevant to sailing: The return echo strength from Radar is
proportional to the fourth root of the distance.


"Thom Stewart" wrote in message
...
Jeff,

Out of curiosity, what in the world would you use Quad Root for?

Ole Thom