Problem statement
>>> from sympy import *
>>> x = Symbol('x')
>>> e = (-x/4 - S(1)/12)**x - 1
>>> e
(-x/4 - 1/12)**x - 1
>>> f = simplify(e)
>>> f
12**(-x)*(-12**x + (-3*x - 1)**x)
>>> a = S(9)/5
>>> simplify(e.subs(x,a))
-1 - 32*15**(1/5)*2**(2/5)/225
>>> simplify(f.subs(x,a))
-1 - 32*(-1)**(4/5)*60**(1/5)/225
>>> N(e.subs(x,a))
-1.32255049319339
>>> N(f.subs(x,a))
-0.739051169462523 - 0.189590423018741*IThe environment starts at commit
4da0b64558e9 (sympy/sympy 1.1), dependencies installed and tests runnable from the first minute. You are graded by hidden tests taken from the fix that was actually merged upstream.