Skip to main content
Version: 5.1

math

This library is an interface to the standard C math library. It provides all its functions inside the table math.

math.abs (x)​

Returns the absolute value of x.

math.acos (x)​

Returns the arc cosine of x (in radians).

math.asin (x)​

Returns the arc sine of x (in radians).

math.atan (x)​

Returns the arc tangent of x (in radians).

math.atan2 (y, x)​

Returns the arc tangent of y/x (in radians), but uses the signs of both parameters to find the quadrant of the result. (It also handles correctly the case of x being zero.)

math.ceil (x)​

Returns the smallest integer larger than or equal to x.

math.cos (x)​

Returns the cosine of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.cosh (x)​

Returns the hyperbolic cosine of x.

math.deg (x)​

Returns the angle x (given in radians) in degrees.

math.exp (x)​

Returns the value ex.

math.floor (x)​

Returns the largest integer smaller than or equal to x.

math.fmod (x, y)​

Returns the remainder of the division of x by y that rounds the quotient towards zero.

math.frexp (x)​

Returns m and e such that x = m2e, e is an integer and the absolute value of m is in the range [0.5, 1) (or zero when x is zero).

math.huge​

The value HUGE_VAL, a value larger than or equal to any other numerical value.

math.ldexp (m, e)​

Returns m2e (e should be an integer).

math.log (x)​

Returns the natural logarithm of x.

math.log10 (x)​

Returns the base-10 logarithm of x.

math.max (x, ...)​

Returns the maximum value among its arguments.

math.min (x, ...)​

Returns the minimum value among its arguments.

math.modf (x)​

Returns two numbers, the integral part of x and the fractional part of x.

math.pi​

The value of pi.

math.pow (x, y)​

Returns xy. (You can also use the expression x^y to compute this value.)

math.rad (x)​

Returns the angle x (given in degrees) in radians.

math.random ([m [, n]])​

This function is an interface to the simple pseudo-random generator function rand provided by ANSI C. (No guarantees can be given for its statistical properties.)

When called without arguments, returns a uniform pseudo-random real number in the range [0,1).
When called with an integer number m, math.random returns a uniform pseudo-random integer in the range [1, m]. When called with two integer numbers m and n, math.random returns a uniform pseudo-random integer in the range [m, n].

math.randomseed (x)​

Sets x as the "seed" for the pseudo-random generator: equal seeds produce equal sequences of numbers.

math.sin (x)​

Returns the sine of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.sinh (x)​

Returns the hyperbolic sine of x.

math.sqrt (x)​

Returns the square root of x. (You can also use the expression x^0.5 to compute this value.)

math.tan (x)​

Returns the tangent of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.tanh (x)​

Returns the hyperbolic tangent of x.