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Comment by maxerickson | Hacker News Reader

You should use the built in pow for the python version (or the double asterisk operator). I guess most of the difference with PHP is there.

The type conversion behavior of the math.pow function is clearly documented:

https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html#math.pow

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I have updated the test with the new figures that I got. Initially I only tested with Python 2 with math.pow. I have to say I am quite disappointed with the performance of Python 3 though and even using the built-in pow function, PHP 5.6 still is the fastest in this particular case.

The call to int is unnecessary when using the built in.

I am a clumsy individual. Dropping the int call resulted in shaving 3.5 seconds. But how is this possible?! It's ridiculous, really!

The CPython interpreter is pretty naive, so it more or less does what you tell it to.

PHP is no better, if you add an intval call it will add almost 4 seconds to the result! This is an extraordinary proof that being a little sloppy can cost you a lot when using interpreted scripting languages!

Also, I am thinking if and how much speed gain could one inject by not using OOP in PHP...

Indeed on my workstation (Xeon W3565 @ 3.2Ghz, x64 linux, Python 2.7):

    math.pow() version: 11.7s

    pow() version: 6.4s

    ** version: 5.2s

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