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

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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

Why *would* it be non-existent? You’re really close with what you’ve written.

As you move up to higher powers, you’re multiplying by x each step. So x¹•x=x², x²•x=x³, etc. As you move down, you do the opposite, dividing. So x³÷x=x², x²÷x=x¹. Continue, and you get x¹÷x=x⁰. But this is just x/x which is 1.

You can also get there from the negative powers. Dividing still takes you lower (more negative) and multiplying still takes you higher (less negative). Therefore x^-1•x=(1/x)•x=x⁰. This is just another way to write x/x, which equals 1.

The only time that x⁰ doesn’t equal 1 is when x=0, because then we’d have 0/0 which is undefined.

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