in lec8: isn't exp3(a,b) linear? Shouldn't it say (b%2)*b != b instead of (b%2)*2 == b (b%2 can only be 0 or 1 so I don't see when this is true other than for b = 0?) to make it log? Or am i missing something (that is not entirely unlikely since I've been studying too many hours today)?

here is the copy pasted code (can't get the indenting to work here but it isn't that important I guess):

def exp3(a,b):
if b == 1:
return a
if (b%2)*2 == b:
return exp3(a*a, b/2)
else: return a*exp3(a,b-1)

Question

in lec8: isn't exp3(a,b) linear? Shouldn't it say (b%2)*b != b instead of (b%2)*2 == b (b%2 can only be 0 or 1 so I don't see when this is true other than for b = 0?) to make it log? Or am i missing something (that is not entirely unlikely since I've been studying too many hours today)?

here is the copy pasted code (can't get the indenting to work here but it isn't that important I guess):

def exp3(a,b):
 if b == 1:
 return a
 if (b%2)*2 == b:
 return exp3(a*a, b/2)
 else: return a*exp3(a,b-1)