$ python -mtimeit -s"from math import sqrt; x = 123" "x**.5"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.445 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s"from math import sqrt; x = 123" "sqrt(x)"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.574 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit -s"import math; x = 123" "math.sqrt(x)"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.727 usec per loop
from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/842245/which-is-more-accurate-x-5-or-math-sqrtx