this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
980 points (96.3% liked)
Memes
45646 readers
1117 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
subtracting one from Exponent means halving (when the base is two):
2⁴ = 16 2³ = 8 2² = 4 2¹ = 2 2⁰ = 1
It's a simple continuation of the pattern and required for mathemarical rules to work.
This is confidently wrong.
3^0 is also 1. 2738394728^0 is also 1.
Edit: just saw that technically you're correct - sure.
IF base 2, Exponent reduction equals to halving - dividing by 2.
For x^y reducing y by one is equal to dividing by x, then we have the proof it always works.
But that's because for 3 the sequence is dividing by 3 not 2.
81, 27, 9, 3, 1, 1/3, 1/9, etc.
3^4, 3^3, 3^2, 3^1, 3^0, 3^(-1), 3^(-2), etc.
You're not always halving, but the method is the same and it sometimes helps people understand the concept more easily.