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Comment on If I hear "% is a mathematical operator" one more time...

Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Square root is an operator that maps a number to the positive number that when squared returns the original number

Nah, dog. You’re arbitrarily ignoring negatives. The square root of 4 is ±2.

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definitemaybe@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I assume you’re nerd baiting* with that, but it’s infuriating how many math teachers actually teach that.

It’s not that complicated. x² = n isn’t the same thing as x = √2 because then square rooting isn’t a function, which is asinine. (Similarly to why 0! is defined to be 0, because otherwise it’s a stupid notation that would need a piecewise function definition for just about every single application of the factorial function.)

*link to xkcd: Duty Calls

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- Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  x² = n isn’t the same thing as x = √2
  
  I guess that’s what I was thinking. I don’t think I can even blame my math teachers.
  
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