Hi All,


Anyone interested in joining a math help forum community can visit the
new site at:


www.mathhelpforum.com


We offer everything from hommework help to brain teasers and
philosphical debat on the subject of mathematics.


Thanks

At first glance, this site is terrible.

The question about exponents and powers goes:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Math Buddy
I have a question that asks me to describe what the difference between
exponents and roots (if there is any). So what is the difference?

none, if you trust in fractionals
Look at this

in natural numbers (0,1,2,3,4...)
x^2=4 means x=2, because 2^2=4

and if I loook for an exponent that gives me

4^x = 2?

How much is x?

not 1 because 4^1 = 4
not 0 because 4^0 = 1

something in between, but how much?
Remember power laws:

(3^4)^5 = 3^20

4^x=2 needs that x is... 0.5!
so 4^(1/2) is the same that sqrt(4), that is 2.

....

__________________
theprof

I find the response totally confusing and I doubt if any high school
students could make sense of it.

The answer given is that exponentials and roots are the same, because
sqrt(x) can be expressed as x^0.5. This assumes the student knows a
lot more than he/she does.

In the usual educationsl curriculum, exponents/logarithms are studied
several times. If well taught, the students don't have to unlearn what
they're learned before.

The question only makes sense at the most basic level. On this level,
raising a number to a power n means multiplying the number by itself n
times. N must be an integer. Square root means what number must be
squared to get the given number. These are different and that should
have been the answer.

At higher levels, the exponent can be a fraction (not a "fractional"!)
and then the difference merely becomes one of notation.

It is very important to know the educational level of the person asking
the question!

Dan

In article .com,
"Dan-the-K" wrote:

At first glance, this site is terrible.

The question about exponents and powers goes:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Math Buddy
I have a question that asks me to describe what the difference between
exponents and roots (if there is any). So what is the difference?

none, if you trust in fractionals
Look at this

in natural numbers (0,1,2,3,4...)
x^2=4 means x=2, because 2^2=4

and if I loook for an exponent that gives me

4^x = 2?

How much is x?

not 1 because 4^1 = 4
not 0 because 4^0 = 1

something in between, but how much?
Remember power laws:

(3^4)^5 = 3^20

4^x=2 needs that x is... 0.5!
so 4^(1/2) is the same that sqrt(4), that is 2.

...

__________________
theprof

I find the response totally confusing and I doubt if any high school
students could make sense of it.

The answer given is that exponentials and roots are the same, because
sqrt(x) can be expressed as x^0.5. This assumes the student knows a
lot more than he/she does.

In the usual educationsl curriculum, exponents/logarithms are studied
several times. If well taught, the students don't have to unlearn what
they're learned before.

The question only makes sense at the most basic level. On this level,
raising a number to a power n means multiplying the number by itself n
times. N must be an integer. Square root means what number must be
squared to get the given number. These are different and that should
have been the answer.

At higher levels, the exponent can be a fraction (not a "fractional"!)
and then the difference merely becomes one of notation.

It is very important to know the educational level of the person asking
the question!


If the person has a very high level of education, they might even be
able to post math comments to math newsgroups and chess comments to
chess newsgroups!
--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson