From: Alexandru Popescu <alexandru.popescu@...>
Date: 2005-03-19T23:05:17+09:00
Subject: Re: 0**0==1?

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[quote Christian Neukirchen::on 3/19/2005 3:00 PM]
> Bertram Scharpf <lists@bertram-scharpf.de> writes:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> this is difficult to feed Google with:
>>
>>>> 0**0
>> => 1
>>>> 0**0.0
>> => 1.0
>>>> 0.0**0
>> => 1.0
>>>> 0.0**0.0
>> => 1.0
>>>> 
>>
>> Shouldn't the result be a NaN?
> 
> Interesting... Perl and Python say 0**0 is 1, Maxima (that should know
> better) says 0 but generates an error...
> 
> To quote http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ExponentLaws.html:
> 
>> The definition 0**0=1 is sometimes used to simplify formulas, but it
>> should be kept in mind that this equality is a definition and not a
>> fundamental mathematical truth (Knuth 1992; Knuth 1997, p. 56).
> 
>> Bertram

Theoretically speaking any number (the rule does not exclude 0) at power 0 is 1.

- --
:alex |.::the_mindstorm::.|
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