(October 14, 2016 at 7:48 am)Mathilda Wrote: Or zero to the power of zero
https://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles....3-5.shtml
that source Wrote:There are some further reasons why using 0^0 = 1 is preferable, but they boil down to that choice being more useful than the alternative choices, leading to simpler theorems, or feeling more “natural” to mathematicians. The choice is not “right”, it is merely nice.
This quote nicely illustrates the fact that all of us here agree upon (who are not arguing for the existence of faeries) that mathematics is an invention. We choose to make it square with what we observe empirically; but when it gets messy we just choose to make it serviceable. Nice work, math guys (and dolls).