I think aliens probably have a better way of doing math than we do.

[Firedwarf]

Cuz like, okay.

I'm in trig and a week or so ago my teacher says

"okay so tomorrow I'm going to quiz you on basic exponent rules so I know that you know them." and wrote them on the board.

One of the rules was b^0 = 1.

Like, you know. Any number with an exponent of zero is equal to one.

That always pissed me off and thought it was contrary to the way they teach exponent stuff.

Like 5^2 = 5 * 5

5^3 = 5 *5 *5

5^1 = 5

so shouldn't 5^0 = 0? Why does it equal one?

My teacher was standing around my desk and heard me asking my classmate. My classmate said "why don't you just ask her" and I'm like "eh no" and she comes up behind me and is all ASK ME WHAT?

So I asked her and she gave me this look and told me to go to www.askdrmath.com but after talking about it for a few minutes, she remembered and gave me an explanation.

This was her explanation.

So 5^2 = 25, right?

And (5^2)/(5^2) = 1, right? (since it's 25/25)

There's an exponent rule that says that if you have two numbers divided and they have the same base, you can subtract the exponents.

So (5^2)/(5^2) is really equal to 5^(2-2) which is 5^0.

5^0 = (5^2)/(5^2) = 1.

Five with an exponent doesn't really equal one (like if you consider the way they taught you how to solve things like that) but they have to define it as equal to one or the whole thing sucks.

So I think that aliens probably have a better way of doing math than we do. At least a really different way. Probably.

 

[Firedwarf]

Well a better way assuming they're more intelligent than we are.

And maybe it's not so much a flaw with the way we do math but the way we.. tea..teach it? I don't know. discuss.

 

[FrostGiant]

25^.5 is 5

 

[Firedwarf]

25^.5 is equal to sqrt(25) so yeah. I don't know why that is, either.

I think that's been my biggest problem with math classes. Like they only teach you math technique but not math.. theory.

I don't even like math.

 

[FrostGiant]

I dare say you would rather just do the math technique as opposed to the theory. I never really cared why. I just wanted to know how. If you ever have the pleasure of taking calculus you'll have plenty of time to try to figure out why.

 

[Firedwarf]

Actually I think I'd like math more if I learned the 'theory' stuff. It'd be less boring.

 

[Absolut Jim Varney]

my trig teacher in high school told my class (and every class she ever had) that she saw a ufo in the 70s after a tupperware party.
it was her and a friend in their car.
she saw this thing with multicolored lights hovering in the air, and it disappeared into thin air.
if you saw her tell the story, you'd be able to tell she's being really sincere, like she almost gets teary eyed.
just 2 years ago, some people who saw the same thing began to speak up about it to the newspaper, and my trig teacher's name was given, because everyone knew she had seen it, and she could always describe it the most vividly.
the very day before she was going to get interviewed, she fell out of her attic and went into a coma, and she's got a lot of memory loss and doesn't really remember the thing, it's like she wasn't meant to tell it!

i said this because you mntioned math and aliens.
oh yeah and I'm forgetting a vital piece of the situation to make it make total sense.

 

[xfer]

"Eep op ork ah ah you earthlings use a BASE TEN number system? how...quaint."

 

[LuminousAether]

Why would 5^0 be 0? I think 1 makes more sense. 5^0 != 5 * 0, b^0 seems to be more of an imaginary concept as how do you take something to the 0 power? As such, it was given a value which would make the other values work. Makes sense to me at least...

 

[TrevJ]

Learning math theory is not as interesting as one might think. At least, not when linear algebra is involved.

 

[FrostGiant]

Agreed.