Remix.run Logo
▲ SamBam a day ago

GP didn't say roots are invalid, just that they burn a two.

If we agree that 2^2 uses two twos (and, indeed, that 2^3 isn't valid, because it uses a 3), then what's the equivalent of a square root?

Of course to my simple math brain, a square root is ^1/2, which includes the digit 1. But I agree there is someone 2-ish about the square root.

▲direwolf20 a day ago | parent [-]

It can be written as ²√2 and there's also ³√2 and so on

▲schiffern 19 hours ago | parent [-]

Yep.

It would be like if we had a stylistic convention that you can drop the second number in an addition and it becomes 1. So "6 +" means "6 + 1."

Now I can trivially make any number, but I'm just 'exploiting' a convenience feature in the notation:

0 = 2 + 2 - 2 - 2

1 = 2 + 2 - 2 - 2 +

2 = 2 + 2 - 2 - 2 + +

Etc