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Re:A Quirky Function by etatoby on Saturday June 25, 2016 @11:24AM (#11976616)
I've always marveled at the exponential function.

Here's a 3D visualization of z=x^y that supports the 0^0 is undefined camp:

https://s32.postimg.org/v9t4stdl1/x_y.gif

(Made with Grapher.app and Gimp)

You can clearly see that the surface is tangent to the z (vertical) axis, which suggests that any z>=0 satisfies z=0^0, hence 0^0 is undefined.

Edit: here's a picture that highlights two important rules:

https://s31.postimg.org/4kozbjqbf/x_y_lines.png

The red line is the rule 0^y=0 for all y; the purple line is x^0=1 for all x. It's clear why these two lines would not meet at 0^0. Some will define 0^0=0, others 0^0=1. But the 3D surface shows that it's really a vertical line.

Re:A Quirky Function by dahart on Saturday June 25, 2016 @07:03PM (#11978437)
This is a great example. Wikipedia has the same one with isolines demonstrating this point in the 0^0 subsection of the exponentiation article, here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponentiation#Continuous_ex...

With the caveat:

"However, under certain conditions, such as when f and g are both analytic functions and f is positive on the open interval (0, b) for some positive b, the limit approaching from the right is always 1.[26][27][28]"

Also, definitely take note of Knuth's argument, because while you might feel strongly that indeterminate is the right answer right now, there are big implications for allowing other choices. (And NB: indeterminate vs undefined)

"The debate stopped there, apparently with the conclusion that 0^0 should be undefined.

But no, no, ten thousand times no! Anybody who wants the binomial theorem to hold for at least one nonnegative integer n must believe that 0^0 = 1, for we can plug in x = 0 and y=1 to get 1 on the left and 0^0 on the right. The number of mappings from the empty set to the empty set is 0^0. It has to be 1."

http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9205211v1.pdf

Re:A Quirky Function by mathgenius on Saturday June 25, 2016 @05:12PM (#11978017)
Also check out Greg Egan's visualization here:

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/a-quirky-fun...