Lynne, sorry about that!
You're right about the 1.5 power being "the square root of cubed". But I haven't used my log-log slide rule since I got a calculator.
On the Windows calculator, 5 to the 1.5 power would be:
5
x^y
1.5
=
(11.18...)
You have to select "View ... Scientific" to get the "x^y" button.
Off topic again.
