How to determine without calculator which is bigger, $\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}$ or $\left(\frac{1}{3}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}$

How can you determine which one of these numbers is bigger (without calculating):

$\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}$ , $\left(\frac{1}{3}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}$

Raise them both to the power of $6$.

Since they are both positive, their order will be preserved and you will get:

$$\left({\dfrac{1}{2}}\right)^2=\frac{1}{4} > \frac{1}{27}=\left({\dfrac{1}{3}}\right)^3$$

No need to do any calculations at all: since we are talking about numbers between $0$ and $1$, a cube root is larger than a square root: $$\Bigl(\frac12\Bigr)^{1/3}>\Bigl(\frac12\Bigr)^{1/2}>\Bigl(\frac13\Bigr)^{1/2}\ .$$

When is $x^y > y^x$ ? When $x^{1/x} > y^{1/y}$. Let's look at the function $x^{1/x}$. Differentiating, we find it has a maximum at $x=e$. Since $1/2$ and $1/3$ are both less than $e$, the one that's nearer wins. So $(1/2)^2 > (1/3)^3$, so $(1/2)^{1/3} > (1/3)^{1/2}$.

But more to the point, this shows that $e^\pi > \pi^e$, which might be a lot harder without a calculator.