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

Think of it like its describing a space. X is a line. X^2 is a 2d grid. X^3 is a 3d cube. X^4 is a hypercube. You can make each x the length of an axis describing a space.

Now go backwards. X^4 describes a hypercube (tesseract). X^3 describes a cube. X^2 a plane. X^1 a line. So x^0? It must be a point. Or a single unit of space.

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