[schiffern]

Yeah, once I got to "all I need to do is add a root for every prime! And cube roots! And..." I realized this is a path of madness. ;)

It could be done symbolically, by generalizing from their rational representation:

  X/Y

To

  (X/Y)^(A/B)

Again this is tantalizingly close to being workable in Frink -- it supports 'dangling' (unevaluated) rational exponents on units, but not simple numbers.

The problem of course is that I'm trying to twist a (powerful!) calculator into something like a computer algebra system. I really should just use an actual CAS.

But like you say, I'd be happy if I could "just" have an exact representation of (if not the reals because that's impossible, then at least) any number I can describe in finite terms with normal math operators.

Cheers and good day