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Tensorics is a java framework which uses a tensor as a central object. A tensor represents a set of values placed in an N-dimensional space. Wherever you are tempted to use maps of maps, a tensor might be a good choice ;-) Tensorics provides methods to create, transform and performing calculations with those tensors.

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// @formatter:off
 /*******************************************************************************
 *
 * This file is part of tensorics.
 * 
 * Copyright (c) 2008-2011, CERN. All rights reserved.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 * 
 ******************************************************************************/
// @formatter:on

package org.tensorics.core.math;

/**
 * Implementations of this interface have to provide all the mathematical methods which will be required for numerical
 * calculations. The idea is, that there exists a default implementation, which only takes basic field operations to
 * perform all the calculations. Thus, the only required structure will be a field. Clearly, this might be not well
 * performing in many case. Thus it is possible to hook in dedicated implementations instead.
 * 
 * The general idea is to mimic the methods of {@link java.lang.Math}.
 * 
 * Ideas might also be taken from apache.commons.math and the FastMath class existing there.
 * 
 * @author kfuchsbe
 * @param  the type of the elements that can be handled by the math class.
 */
public interface Math {

    /**
     * Has to return the first argument raised to the power of the second argument. This has to work for positive and
     * negative exponents.
     * 
     * @param base the number which should be raised to the power.
     * @param exponent the exponent which shall be applied to the base.
     * @return base^exponent
     */
    T pow(T base, T exponent);

    T root(T base, T exponent);

}