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Article #148Re: Refreshing basics for postgraduate study
From: Stuart M Newberger
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:22
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:22
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2710 bytes
"Ken Pledger" <ken.pledger@mcs.vuw.ac.nz> wrote in message news:ken.pledger-D49904.09064522032007@bats.mcs.vuw.ac.nz... > In article <h5v0039oor1n87435l8m98vkh6eo85eis0@4ax.com>, > Ian George <egroegnai@yugswen.moc> wrote: > >> Gee, I knew I'd end up feeling stupid, and still do, because I don't >> know why .2 becomes 4 rather than .4? Which is why my answer was >> closer to 13 than 1300.. Which rule have I forgotton here? >> .... > > Rather than forgetting any rule, you may just have been misled by > bad notation. In algebraic formulae people sometimes insert a dot to > indicate multiplication, for example a.b instead of ab . But IMHO > it's a bad practice to carry over that convention to arithmetical > formulae, as the multiplication dot is easily confused with a decimal > point. The traditional multiplication sign is clearer, in your example > (3^2 x 2^2)^2 . (That last dot was just a fullstop. :-) Well ,yes but someone is bound to think 'x' is a variable and get 1296x^2 .Whether you use '.' or 'x' somebody has to tell you what the symbol denotes ,or you have to have the gift of guess.Hmm,I was just being humerous but this is getting too serious .Regards,smn
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