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What is 0^0. I AM STRUGGLING because of recent lessons saying that anything to the 0th power is one. But it that true in this case? I don't believe so.. but am i right?
 Mar 28, 2014
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Actually, this is known as an "indeterminate form"

To see why, consider something like (3^3) / (3^3)

By the rule of exponents, we have 3^(3-3) = 3^(0) = 1

But now, let us consider this........(0^3) / (0^3)

And, by the rule of exponents, we should have 0^(3-3) = 0^(0) = 1

But, we have a problem......notice in the step before, the (0^3) in the denominator = 0....and we can't divide by that !!!

So........in general......(0^N) / (0^N) = 0^(N-N) = 0^(0) is not defined

Also.....let us suppose that we could define (0^N) / (0^N) as "something'.....what would that "something" be??

By the rules of math, 0^N = 0

So, (0^N) / (0^N) = 0 / 0

But we could claim that this might be......

0/0 = 11..... or.......0/0 = 6......or........0/0 = 2.3456........etc.

Notice, that in the each fraction, multiplying the "result" by the denominator of the fraction (0), gives us the numerator (0) !!! (In other words, we can't precisely say what 0/0 might be !!)

Therefore, (0^N) / (0^N) = 0^(0) = 0 /0 = "indeterminate""

Sorry for the long-winded answer !!

Hope this helps.
 Mar 28, 2014

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