eli5: why is x⁰ = 1 instead of non-existent?

634 views

It kinda doesn’t make sense.
x¹= x

x² = x*x

x³= x*x*x

etc…

and even with negative numbers you’re still multiplying the number by itself

like (x)-² = 1/x² = 1/(x*x)

In: 1797

38 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

X^3 is X * X * X

If i do X^3 / X^2

Thats just X^1, and also the same thing as me subtracting exponents.

So if i do X^3 / X^3 thats equal to 1, no argument there right?

But also when we do exponent division, we can just subtract the exponents.

So we’re left with X^0

You are viewing 1 out of 38 answers, click here to view all answers.