blackpenredpen

math for fun 

To see this working, head to your live site.
  • Categories
  • All Posts
  • My Posts
George T
Nov 05, 2020

The powers of -1

in Math Problems

The powers of -1
.pdf
Download PDF • 76KB


Strange results . Can you find the mistake?

1 comment
0
Ian Fowler
Nov 18, 2020  ·  Edited: Nov 18, 2020

You have restricted n to be a Natural Number (not including 0) when, in fact, n can actually be any Integer (which allows for negative rotations in integer multiples of 2pi, including 0). So for 2n +1 = 1 gives rise to n = 0 which is certainly a valid value of n. Which nullifies your contradiction.

Then we have 0 + ln(-1) = ln(-1) and everything else just crumbles. Sorry man.


(-1)^2n is always 1 for all integers n so ln[(-1)^2n] is always 0 for any integer n.

0
1 comments