in reply to Re: zero to the power zero
in thread zero to the power zero

I don't see the different answers ... the limit is 1 for both x**x and x**0 as x -> 0 from above. 0**x goes undefined when x falls below 1, but that doesn't prove it stays undefined in the limiting case. So you get two answers agreeing on 1 and one failure to produce an answer out of the three cases. (misread as case of less than zero, as bart supposed, but ... )

Update: I should refine this to: any function from the set of all f(x,y) = g(x)**h(y) that converges on 0**0 will either get a 1 or be discontinuous only at the exact 0,0 point. I used to have to prove that kind of thing as homework, but that's going back nearly 30 yrs!

-M

Free your mind

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Re^3: zero to the power zero
by bart (Canon) on Feb 19, 2007 at 11:48 UTC
    0**x goes undefined when x falls below 1
    Eh? The squareroot of 0 is still 0, AFAIK. And that's where the value of the exponent is 1/2: SQRT(0) == 0**0.5. I see no reason for a change in behaviour when x gets closer to 0.

    Perhaps you ment to say "when x falls below 0"? Because 0**x is 0 for any x > 0, and 0**x is infinite for any x < 0.

Re^3: zero to the power zero
by Anonymous Monk on Nov 28, 2007 at 20:25 UTC
    no all functions of this form converge