Raising Matrix to Negative Power

[gingerphil]

I am having problems raising a matrix to a negative power. I am relatively new to Ruby, so please forgive me if I have missed something obvious.

The software I am using is basically a GIS-type that allows ruby coded interrogation/assignment of its input. It has a class called OtMatrix that seems to be preventing me from applying a negative power to it, by saying that it cannot be coerced to a fixnum.

Here is the basic code...

elas = 0.24 # I have stored it as a positive and used as denominator
matrix2 = 1/matrix**(elas)


All ideas gratefully recieved!

[brendanriley]

You cannot multiply a matrix to a negative power.

[Airslash]

You cannot multiply a matrix to a negative power.

what about the Unity Matrix then? Isn't that the original matrix to power -1 ?

[hamartrom]

Actually, the unity matrix should not be seen as the matrix to power (-1), as the (-1) is only a representation for the inverse matrix, similarly to the the inverse of other things, such as f^(-1). It is therefore not raised to any power, it is just a way of notation.