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rnhmjoj 2 days ago

So, I did a bit of research and I wasn't going crazy: there are apparently two competing definitions of "elementary" in use [1]:

> the class of functions [...] is what I would call exponential-logarithmic functions or EL functions; that is, they are the functions that can be expressed using some finite combination of constant functions, the identity function, exp, log, composition, and arithmetic operations (+−×÷). Some authors call this class of functions elementary functions, but that term is now more commonly used in a different sense, which includes algebraic functions.

Evidently my professor was in the exponential-logarithmic camp.

[1]: https://mathoverflow.net/a/442656