Hi there! I'm developing a program in Python to calculate the energy of a primary cosmic ray particle using the NKG-function. Part of the process involves solving an equation in x in the form ax^1.2 + bx^2.2 + cx^3.2 + dx^4.2 - s = 0, where a, b, c, d and s are known variables.

I've installed the Wolfram Alpha package using pip, and am working in the IDE PyCharm. The code correctly calculates the value of x, but I think it is stored as a string, rather than a float. In order to use this x value in further calculations, I need to convert it into a float. I know how to do this in Python, but was wondering how this is done using the Wolfram Alpha language?

This is the section of the code so far:

client = wf.Client("app_ID") #app_ID is the app id

q = "Solve 274770*x**1.2 + 8271.8*x**2.2 + 79.555*x**3.2 + 0.22184*x**4.2 - 35435557377 = 0"
res = client.query(q)
answer = next(res.results).text
print(answer)

ra1 = answer
print("ra1:", ra1)

ra2 = (k*r0**eta) / (measured_density_a*(h*ra1**0.2 + g*ra1**1.2 + i*ra1**2.2 + e*ra1**3.2))
print("ra2", ra2)

This is the output when I run the code:

x = 385.279
ra1: x = 385.279

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/Nadia/PycharmProjects/Particle_Energy/energy_code/complete_code_wolfram.py", line 282, in <module>
    ra2 = (k * r0 ** eta) / (measured_density_a * (h * ra1 ** 0.2 + g * ra1 ** 1.2 + i * ra1 ** 2.2 + e * ra1 ** 3.2))

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): 'str' and 'float'

Thank you in advance!