Benchmark: Math.pow vs Exponentiation vs Multiplication

Script Preparation code:

var n = 1.234567;

Tests:

Math.pow
var x = Math.pow(n, 2);
Exponentiation
var y = n ** 2;
Multiplication
var y = n * n;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Math.pow
Exponentiation
Multiplication

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 7 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 135 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Math.pow	155571168.0 Ops/sec
Exponentiation	164762416.0 Ops/sec
Multiplication	157395760.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the world of MeasureThat.net and understand what's being tested in this benchmark.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark compares the performance of three ways to calculate the square of a number: `Math.pow`, exponentiation (`n ** 2`), and multiplication (`n * n`). The goal is to determine which method is the fastest.

**Options Compared**

1. **Math.pow**: This is a built-in JavaScript function that raises the first argument to the power of the second argument.
2. **Exponentiation (n ** 2)**: This uses the exponentiation operator (`**`) to raise `n` to the power of 2.
3. **Multiplication (n * n)**: This simply multiplies `n` by itself.

**Pros and Cons**

* **Math.pow**:
	+ Pros: Widely supported, easy to read and write.
	+ Cons: May have performance overhead due to function call.
* **Exponentiation (n ** 2)**:
	+ Pros: Often faster than `Math.pow`, as it's a single operator instruction.
	+ Cons: May not be supported in older browsers or environments.
* **Multiplication (n * n)**:
	+ Pros: Simple, fast, and widely supported.
	+ Cons: Requires two multiplication operations, which may lead to more calculations.

**Library/Function Used**

None. This benchmark doesn't use any external libraries or functions beyond the standard JavaScript math library.

**Special JS Features/Syntax**

The benchmark uses a feature introduced in ECMAScript 2016 (ES6): the exponentiation operator (`**`). This allows for concise and expressive code, but may not be supported in older browsers or environments.

**Other Considerations**

* The benchmark runs on a desktop environment with Chrome 129.
* The results are measured in executions per second, which indicates how many times each operation is executed per second.

**Alternative Approaches**

If you want to write your own benchmark for this scenario, you could use other approaches, such as:

1. Using a JavaScript interpreter or compiler that supports benchmarking features.
2. Writing a custom benchmarking framework using Node.js or another JavaScript runtime.
3. Using a third-party library like Benchmark.js or JSBench.

Keep in mind that writing a high-quality benchmark requires careful consideration of factors like input variability, execution time, and data sampling.

Related benchmarks:

Math.pow vs Exponentiation vs Multiplication (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: Math.pow vs Exponentiation vs Multiplication

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Math.pow

Exponentiation

Multiplication

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):