Re: Order of operations (was: Eigenvalues &/or eigenvectors,
Re: Order of operations (was: Eigenvalues &/or eigenvectors,
- Subject: Re: Order of operations (was: Eigenvalues &/or eigenvectors,
- From: Christopher Nebel <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 03:21:20 -0700
On Wednesday, May 14, 2003, at 02:02 PM, Gary Lists wrote:
On or about 5/9/03 2:20 AM, Jean-Baptiste LE STANG wrote:
Having taught high school math and algebra, I can tell you that you
no one should expect a square to be negative.
You better apologize to your students... ;-)
Take any number, positive or negative, square it.
You're missing the point. The issue isn't whether the square of a
negative value is positive -- it is, assuming it's real -- but how to
evaluate the expression "-x^2" with no parentheses. Standard algebraic
precedence rules say that the exponent comes first, and *then* the
negative; hence, "-x^2" is always negative for real values of x. If
you taught your students otherwise, then you owe them an apology for
teaching them non-standard precedence.
Once again, go read the alt.algebra.help FAQ if you still don't get
this. <
http://home.earthlink.net/~aahfaq/node27.html>
--Chris Nebel
Apple Development Tools
P.S.: I'd have told you this offline, but your signature says not to
bother.
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