• Quibblekrust
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    5 hours ago

    Square root is an operator that maps a number to the positive number that when squared returns the original number

    Nah, dog. You’re arbitrarily ignoring negatives. The square root of 4 is ±2.

    Nah, dog. I’m wrong

    • definitemaybe@lemmy.ca
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      20 hours ago

      I assume you’re nerd baiting* with that, but it’s infuriating how many math teachers actually teach that.

      It’s not that complicated. x² = n isn’t the same thing as x = √2 because then square rooting isn’t a function, which is asinine. (Similarly to why 0! isn’t defined to be 0, because otherwise it’s a stupid notation that would need a piecewise function definition for just about every single application of the factorial function.)

      *link to xkcd: Duty Calls

      Edit: my phone autocorrected “isn’t” to “is”, lol.

      • Quibblekrust
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        5 hours ago

        x² = n isn’t the same thing as x = √2

        I guess that’s what I was thinking. I don’t think I can even blame my math teachers.