The power operator in Java?

Question

When I run the following Visual Basic code :

Dim b As Double
b = (2 ^ 16 - 1) * Math.Sqrt(Math.Sqrt((a / (2 ^ 8 - 1))))

(Assuming a

Answer 1

^ is XOR operator in java. Use Math.pow(2,8) which is 2 ^ 8 in Visual Basic.