A recursive function to calculate the exponential of a base number by checking if the exponential is even, odd or equal to 0

recursivePower.py

def recurPowerNew(base, exp):
    '''
    base: int or float.
    exp: int >= 0

    returns: int or float; base^exp
    '''
    # Your code here
    if exp<=0:
        return 1
    elif exp%2 == 0:
        return recurPowerNew(base*base,(exp/2))
    return base*recurPowerNew(base, exp-1)

x = float(raw_input('Enter a number (integer or float): '))

y = int(raw_input('Enter the exponential (integer): '))

z = recurPowerNew(x,y)

print('The answer is: ' + str(z))