Message233798
This is easy: Cowlishaw is wrong on this one, but nothing can be done about it ;-)
Confusion arises because most people think of 0**0 as a value (where it certainly must be 1) while others seem to view it as some kind of shorthand for expressing a limit (as the base and/or exponent _approach_ 0, in which case there is no correct answer - it's an "indeterminate form").
It's in the "spirit of 754" to take inputs at face value, viewing them as infinitely precise. So viewing 0**0 as anything other than 1 in this context is perverse.
Centuries of history distilled to a few paragraphs here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation#Zero_to_the_power_of_zero |
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2015-01-10 03:08:17 | tim.peters | set | recipients:
+ tim.peters, rhettinger, facundobatista, mark.dickinson, vstinner, Devin Jeanpierre, ezio.melotti, steven.daprano, cvrebert, skrah, josh.r |
2015-01-10 03:08:17 | tim.peters | set | messageid: <1420859297.53.0.428154241776.issue23201@psf.upfronthosting.co.za> |
2015-01-10 03:08:17 | tim.peters | link | issue23201 messages |
2015-01-10 03:08:16 | tim.peters | create | |
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