interesting dilemma (1 Viewer)

OH1995

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
150
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Guys, the simple answer is no. The rule only applies firstly for numbers.......infinite is not a number and even if it was it's far from natural. Therefore the law will not work.
 

funnytomato

Active Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Messages
848
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Dunno if this qustion is related, but seems interesting :

x^x^x^x^x^x^x^x^x^... = 7
( infinitely interated )
Find x
 

RealiseNothing

what is that?It is Cowpea
Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
4,591
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Square root 7?
But > 2.

If you let 2 be a lower bounds, 2^2^2 is greater than 7 already, so it can't be right? I would think that anything greater than 1 wouldn't be right.

Or does the fact that the powers continue on infinitely change the whole situation?
 

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,494
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Haha I cheated because we know for sure that sqrt2^sqrt2^... infinitely = 2.

So I just blindly said that therefore sqrt7^sqrt7^sqrt7^... = 7, which is clearly not true because the tetration x^x^x^x^... only converges for:



And sqrt 7 is most certainly not in that domain!
 

RANK 1

Active Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
1,369
Location
the hyperplane
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Why wouldnt 1 to the power of a chair equal 1? Infinity is not a real number, the current definition of exponentiation does not apply to this situation and we cannot extrapolate any information from the fact that 1 to the power of a real number is 1.

In any case the OP meant something different, read my earlier post on limits.
but the idea of 1 to the power of n(where n is positive) is that the 1 is multiplied by itself n times, so wouldnt that mean that it doesnt matter what n is the answer would always be 1 because you're multiplying 1 by 1. which should means it wouldnt matter what n equaled in 1^n, it would always be 1 no matter what even to infinity
 

Riproot

Addiction Psychiatrist
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Messages
8,228
Location
I don’t see how that’s any of your business…
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Uni Grad
2017
1 to the power of say n (n is some finite natural number) is 1 of course, and we all are taught 1 to the power of anything is 1.
So it would be obvious to think that 1^(infinity) is 1. Is this correct or not... What do you guys believe?
But n is a number and infinity is not a number, it's an idea.
 

funnytomato

Active Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Messages
848
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
could some one tell me what's going on here
[as an experiment, I know it's not exactly 'Maths ']:

(using a calculator)
store A as 7^(1/7)

ans=A

then ans=A^ans, the 10 digits displayed don't seem to change at all after 30 iterations or so
and it is 1.530140119
or 1.53014011947213 (from MATLAB)


does that have something to do with machine epsilson(or whatever the right terminology is) , or is my experimental method flawed ?
 

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,494
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
could some one tell me what's going on here
[as an experiment, I know it's not exactly 'Maths ']:

(using a calculator)
store A as 7^(1/7)

ans=A

then ans=A^ans, the 10 digits displayed don't seem to change at all after 30 iterations or so
and it is 1.530140119
or 1.53014011947213 (from MATLAB)


does that have something to do with machine epsilson(or whatever the right terminology is) , or is my experimental method flawed ?
It is possible that it is very slowly converging, but I'm on a train ready for a party so not really in Math mode now haha. But indeed a result like that is cause for questioning. However, you would think that with each further iteration, the power > 1 would compound upon itself and the result magnified every iteration.

I will be sure to do this properly at home if I'm not too tired.
 

lolcakes52

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2011
Messages
286
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2012
But what if we define a series of terms such that a term is equal to 1 raised to the power of the previous term? The value of the first term is one
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top