# Symbolic sqrt(2) and sin(pi)

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/symbolic-sqrt-2-and-sin-pi/58633>\
**Category:** Specific Domains\
**Tags:** symbolic\
**Created:** [April 4, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/symbolic-sqrt-2-and-sin-pi/58633 "2021-04-04T19:03:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DNF](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dnf/32/10191_2.png) [@DNF](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/DNF)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/symbolic-sqrt-2-and-sin-pi/58633/13 "2021-04-05T15:00:57Z")

</div>

> [@CAS Best Practices](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/cas-best-practices/58092/69):
>
> ```julia
> julia> using Symbolics
> julia> Term(sqrt,[2])
> 
> ```

If I may ask: What is the purpose of wrapping the inputs in `[]`? Why not just `Term(sqrt, 2)`, which seems to give the same results, but is dramatically faster?

```julia
jl> @btime Term(sqrt, big(2))
  54.888 ns (3 allocations: 56 bytes)
sqrt(2)

jl> @btime Term(sqrt, [big(2)])
  742.268 ns (8 allocations: 344 bytes)
sqrt(2)

jl> @btime Term(sqrt, 2)
  6.200 ns (1 allocation: 16 bytes)
sqrt(2)

jl> @btime Term(sqrt, [2])
  781.111 ns (6 allocations: 304 bytes)
sqrt(2)

```

When you use `eval(toexpr())` the speed difference is small, but is there any difference in meaning?

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/symbolic-sqrt-2-and-sin-pi/58633)._