This is part 2 of a series of extracts from discussions we have had on whether multiplication implied by juxtaposition is to be done before division (which I call IMF, for Implied Multiplication First). Some people write to us claiming that there is one official correct answer. Are they right?
We keep getting new questions related to Order of Operations: Implicit Multiplication?, where we discussed expressions like 6/2(1+2) that keep showing up in social media arguments. Since I closed comments on that page some time ago, because of the toxicity of some of them, further questions have come through our Ask a Question page (as …
Implied Multiplication 1: Not as Bad as You Think Read More »
We’ve been talking about the oddities of zero, and I want to close with another issue similar to last week’s \(0^0\). All our questions will be essentially identical apart from details of context: “We know zero factorial equals 1; but why?” This isn’t nearly as controversial as the others, but will bring closure to the …
Last week we looked at numbers raised to the zero power, as part of our series on oddities of zero. We’ve looked at zero divided by zero in the past, and just recently observed how 0 to the 0 power relates to degree in polynomials, which is part of the motivation for this series. But …
Zero to the Zero Power: Indeterminate, or Defined? Read More »