Re: [xmca] Why Does N to the Power of Zero = 1?

[ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org]

ooops typed after DKi's response.  thank you DKi



From:   ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org
To:     "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date:   02/28/2011 09:07 AM
Subject:        Re: [xmca] Why Does N to the Power of Zero = 1?
Sent by:        xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu



proof is very long and complicated.  had to do this for college level 
class once.  this is a relative late comer to the math game and has to do 
with complex calculus.  sure and xmcer out there has a copy of the proof.



From:   David Kellogg <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com>
To:     xmca <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date:   02/28/2011 12:42 AM
Subject:        [xmca] Why Does N to the Power of Zero = 1?
Sent by:        xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu



I've been working on math games to play in the back seat of a car while 
stuck in a Korean traffic jam (during the various lunar holidays when 
everybody visits the ancestral graves).
 
So I've got a version of "Twenty Four" with cell phone numbers called 
"Cell Phone Golf". In Korea, cell phone numbers usually have eight digits 
once you remove the company code. Mine, for example is 3475 2505.
 
For the first hole of cell phone golf we split my number in two. My young 
opponent takes 3475 and I take 2505. We both work to hit the number ONE 
using the four arithmetic operations (and then two, and so on all the way 
up to eighteen, or until the traffic clears up). My opponent tees off 
first, 
 
(3-4) + (7-5) = 1
 
Man, she's got a mean drive. Just look at those negative numbers. A hole 
in one! 
 
Now it's my turn. This is going to be hard to beat.
 
(2-5) + (0+5). Nah. that doesn't work....
 
I've got it! 
 
(2 + 5 + 5) RAISED to the POWER of ZERO!
 
A hole in one! Ha! I explain to my young opponent that any number raised 
to the power of zero is 1.
 
But she gives me a skeptical sidelong glance: I am suspected of 
cheating. She demands to know WHY any number raised to the power of zero 
is equal to one. 
 
Can anyone help me out before the traffic improves?
 
David Kellogg
Seoul National University of Education
 
 


 
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