Things possibly not to bother writing
Aug. 25th, 2011 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoySo lately I seem to have encountered a number of internet arguments over whether or not 00=1. It seems to me to be the new "Is .9 repeating equal to 1?". A page explaining why 0^0=1 even somehow ended up on the front page of Hacker News. (I'll confess to having upvoted it, in the hopes that people would come to understand why 0^0=1, but I have to admit I probably just promoted pointless argument instead.)
Unfortunately it seems to be a bit harder to convince people that 0^0=1 than it is to convince people that .999...=1. The thing is, you can present any number of good reasons why 0^0 really should be 1, but people will respond with reasons why it shouldn't that are wrong but for which it can take quite a bit of time to point out the error. That's really the thing -- the people who claim it shouldn't be 1 are simply going to ignore all your reasons why it should be unless you specifically counter their arguments first.
So I was thinking maybe I should write a long, comprehensive explanation "Yes, 0^0 really is 1" to put up on http://www-personal.umich.edu/~haltman/ that I could link people to whenever the topic came up. It would actually directly address the various arguments I've heard about why it shouldn't be 1 before explaining why it should be, and hopefully stand a slightly better chance at convincing people than the other attempts I've seen.
On the other hand, people are goddamned stubborn and this would probably have very little effect. I feel like if I actually were to, after writing it, post it to Hacker News or Reddit, it would just stir up more pointless argument. Largely from people who didn't actually read it. :P
So: Thoughts? Should I bother doing this or not?
-Harry
Unfortunately it seems to be a bit harder to convince people that 0^0=1 than it is to convince people that .999...=1. The thing is, you can present any number of good reasons why 0^0 really should be 1, but people will respond with reasons why it shouldn't that are wrong but for which it can take quite a bit of time to point out the error. That's really the thing -- the people who claim it shouldn't be 1 are simply going to ignore all your reasons why it should be unless you specifically counter their arguments first.
So I was thinking maybe I should write a long, comprehensive explanation "Yes, 0^0 really is 1" to put up on http://www-personal.umich.edu/~haltman/ that I could link people to whenever the topic came up. It would actually directly address the various arguments I've heard about why it shouldn't be 1 before explaining why it should be, and hopefully stand a slightly better chance at convincing people than the other attempts I've seen.
On the other hand, people are goddamned stubborn and this would probably have very little effect. I feel like if I actually were to, after writing it, post it to Hacker News or Reddit, it would just stir up more pointless argument. Largely from people who didn't actually read it. :P
So: Thoughts? Should I bother doing this or not?
-Harry
