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Hurray! Saturday night Math question?! Girlfriend...
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| cmay119 |
Alright, I'm hoping some of you guys can explain this out to me in lehman's terms, because I can't for the life of me wrap my head around it.
Here we go:
0^0 = 1 How can this be?
Zero to the power of Zero = One?
I just used my calculator for it to confirm on this, and it comes up with the answer of 1, but I don't get how this is an excepted answer.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I understand (fairly well) why other numbers to the power of 0 = 1, but not 0 itself. |
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| idoru |
| quote: | This fact is based on the laws of indices:
1) (x^a)(x ^b) = x^(a+b)
2) (x^a) / (x ^b) = x^(a-b)
3) (x^a)^b = (x^b)^a = x^(ab)
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Consider x^n / x^n where n is a non-zero integer.
Using the second law of indices, x^n / x^n = x^(n-n) = x^0
However, we also know that anything divided by itself is equal to 1 (ignoring 0).
Therefore x^n / x^n = 1
Putting these two answers together:
1 = x^n / x^n = x^(n-n) = x^0
Therefore x^0 = 1.
[x=0 is a curious case and is undefined]
Hope that clears things up :) |
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...09133746AAuXWPt |
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| cmay119 |
I'm also in the 'I suck at math' group. :( |
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| Zombie0729 |
| anything to the zero power is 1 |
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| Armitage |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zombie0729
anything to the zero power is 1 |
but zero to the power of anything is zero! stupid math.
3^0 = 1
2^0 = 1
1^0 = 1
0^0 = ?
0^1 = 0
0^2 = 0
0^3 = 0 |
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| cmay119 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zombie0729
anything to the zero power is 1 |
That makes sense when the value you're putting to the power of 0 actually is a value. 0 has no value. So what you're saying is, I have zero apples and I take my zero apples and power the amount of apples I have by 0. Suddenly 1 appears out of thin air?
Sorry, I can't except that as a logical answer. |
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| cmay119 |
Sorry, didn't see this right away, Idoru. So the value is undefined? Not 0? So my calculator is wrong? |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by cmay119
lehman's terms |
i dont think your problem is with math. |
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| cmay119 |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
i dont think your problem is with math. |
:gsmile: |
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