lol, I did that for clarity. Also, if there is an optimizer checking the code, r^3 would simplify to r*r*r anyway (unless there's an even quicker way to do it).
I'm aware of the difference to a computer when it comes to multiplication vs exponentiation (is that a word?). I'm also aware that in anything but a rudimentary compiler, everything that you write gets mangled all to hell and optimized into something much more efficient, at the cost of occasionally being completely different than what you originally wrote.
I was trying to make it a bit easier for someone to read, rather than optimizing it for a PLC. If I was optimizing it for a PLC, i'd have replaced 4/3 with 1.333... (or however many decimal places it's possible to define), and 1/3 to 0.333...