Dialogue de sourds about mathematics: Are exponents substractions in disguise?

[Felix]

Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2=4. If you can do that, all else follows.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I was out of there before they included that one.

My roommate took 8.02X - and he seemed to have more fun, though, seeming to support the general "Extra letters are good, extra numbers are bad" rule.

I signed up for 8.02X and they dumped me into 8.02T because of some space thing. And that after I delayed til Spring specifically to take 8.02X (passed out of 8.01). Grr

 

[CRGreathouse]

Exactly.

And it's true in most cases though, I must now admit, not all.

Going through my old Calculus texts tonight, and I haven't found a way around some questions raised in this thread. So, I take it back.

Thinking of it like you do could possibly work for rational exponents, but transcendental exponents will still cause problems. (Also, it's hard to counter arguments that say multiplication is just repeated addition and addition is just repeated use of the successor function.)

The thing is, the order is just for convenience, so keeping operations seperate is really for the best.

But calculus itself is really easy. Its the darned algebra that goes along with it that gets annoying...

And then the Fourier transform convolutions and Laplacian eigenvectors, inserted into the Legendre function modeling a Partial Third Order Nonlinear Differential Equation that use it.

Bah, eigenvectors and eigenvalues. I always prefered number-theoretic topics anyway.

 

[blargney the second]

Should a moderator move this flagrant case of topic drift into the Off Topic forum?
-blarg

 

[Saeviomagy]

(Also, it's hard to counter arguments that say multiplication is just repeated addition and addition is just repeated use of the successor function.)

Well, this really comes down to what sort of expression compiler your head is using... recursive or not?

 

[Rystil Arden]

Should a moderator move this flagrant case of topic drift into the Off Topic forum?
-blarg

Well, the numbering order of operations as applied to d20 Rules could very well make a difference in the end result of a complicated effect But probably not.