Psst, Wikipedia knows all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caret
:-)
what is meaning of ^ symbol in math?
Quote:Original post by SneftelQuote:Original post by SteadtlerYeh, now I see it on one of my computers but not the other.
I see the symbol here, maybe its your language set.Quote:Anyway, the *only* similar math symbol to both those characters is still the conjunction symbol.
Not true. In articles written in the days before TeX, and even these days in text-based circumstances, it's quite common to see ^ used for exponentiation. I've got some old Blinn papers in my filing cabinet at work that I'm almost certain use ^ in that way. It may be something which is specific to computer science literature.
Im not saying nobody does it, but its not proper nor widely accepted, and no math professor would use it on a blackboard. Plus, now that great tools exist, it should not be encouraged. Must have been a pain, doing science research in the days before Tex and the net.
Funnily enough, I had to revise one of my own articles because I had mistakenly used * for multiplication instead of the dot in one particular equation. The reviewers couldnt see why I was convoluting...
Quote:Original post by Steadtler
Im not saying nobody does it, but its not proper nor widely accepted, and no math professor would use it on a blackboard.
Of course they wouldn't. They don't have to. The caret is used for exponentiation where superscripts aren't feasible. It's certainly widely accepted (see pretty much any Usenet FAQ involving math, for instance). As for "proper", I have no idea whether the Queen Mother considers it acceptable.
Quote:Original post by SneftelQuote:Original post by Steadtler
Im not saying nobody does it, but its not proper nor widely accepted, and no math professor would use it on a blackboard.
Of course they wouldn't. They don't have to. The caret is used for exponentiation where superscripts aren't feasible.
And thats what makes it unproper, and it should always be a priori and clearly defined when used as such, because the correct usage of ^ is for the conjunction, and using it for anything else only leads to confusion (as seen here).
tiegudanxin, I dont know what you are reading, but if it is for a mathematics class, then ^ means a logical "and". If its ALGOL then better read the language's semantic grammar...
Quote:Original post by Steadtler
And thats what makes it unproper, and it should always be a priori and clearly defined when used as such, because the correct usage of ^ is for the conjunction, and using it for anything else only leads to confusion (as seen here).
You're using circular reasoning here. Do you have any evidence that more people mistake a caret-as-conjunction for a caret-as-exponentiation than the other way around? Honestly, I doubt many people would be confused by either.
Quote:Original post by instinKt
A friend of mine was told there was no such thing as negative natural numbers.
Fixed.
Quote:Original post by SteadtlerQuote:Original post by Sneftel
If you were to write a science paper, and used ^ for exponentiation, I would expect any serious publication to consider it a typo. If you were to write a science paper, and used ^ for conjunction, I would expect any serious publication to consider it a typo.
I did publish several science papers, but I never needed to use the conjunction symbol in my equations (I think), so I admit I dont know first hand. Why would they consider it a typo when it is the only correct mathematical symbol for conjunction? Im curious to what you use for conjunction if not it.
I cannot believe reading you guys, math is supposed to be the least ambiguous thing out there. The OP asked for the meaning of ^ in math, and I stand that it is the conjunction, and not any of the other meanings mentionned here.
I assure you from first hand experience that A ^ B would not be regarded as a logical conjuction (AND) since the symbol for (AND) is more akin to /\: A /\ B. It is most likely to be taken as A raised to the power of B. The standard symbol for XOR is the symbol \/ underlined. I have not seen the notation of ^ in a maths paper before. Even the wedge product is much larger.
Numbers exist in the same manner that blue does, which is: not really. :)
I have seen ^ used as a shorthand for Fourier transform more times than any of the possibilities mentioned above, so I'd say that's the "right" meaning (and apart from math, the LaTeX interpretation wins hands down).
Quote:Original post by joanusdmentiaQuote:Original post by instinKt
A friend of mine was told there was no such thing as negative natural numbers.
Fixed.
Don't defend a lousy teacher who was too lazy to explain to the other kids what a negative number was!
Quote:Original post by Steadtler
The OP asked for the meaning of ^ in math, and I stand that it is the conjunction, and not any of the other meanings mentionned here.
That's pretty narrow-minded. There is no universal standard for mathematics, just convention. While you may prefer to have ^ default to logical conjunction, there is no denying that it is commonly used for a whole variety of other things, and hence it represents them. Hell, I've seen some horribly perverse notation in my days, but I've never claimed ant of it to be 'wrong'. Indeed, if the writer defines their own notation, that's their prerogative and nobody can refute their use of it.
The whole argument's pretty much moot anyway. I would hope it's very clear from the context what is meant.
Admiral
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