Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread Duncan Murdoch
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA512 On 18/09/2015 11:13 AM, Erich Neuwirth wrote: > Let me add a little bit here: > > When using math formulas, one should know about the parsing rules > form complex expression which do not have all the necessary > parenthesis. > > Different systems

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread Berend Hasselman
> On 18 Sep 2015, at 16:31, John McKown wrote: > > On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 8:39 AM, John Kane wrote: > >> It appears that at least three major spreadsheets, Excel, Apache >> OpenOffice Cal and gnumeric have a problem with the correct order of

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread John McKown
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 8:39 AM, John Kane wrote: > It appears that at least three major spreadsheets, Excel, Apache > OpenOffice Cal and gnumeric have a problem with the correct order of > operations when dealing with exponents. The gnumeric result is very strange. > > This

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread David L Carlson
: r-help Subject: Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation) On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 8:39 AM, John Kane <jrkrid...@inbox.com> wrote: > It appears that at least three major spreadsheets, Excel, Apache > OpenOffice Cal and gnumeric have a problem with the correct order of >

[R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread John Kane
It appears that at least three major spreadsheets, Excel, Apache OpenOffice Cal and gnumeric have a problem with the correct order of operations when dealing with exponents. The gnumeric result is very strange. This problem has probably been reported before but just in case it has not, it

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread John McKown
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Erich Neuwirth < erich.neuwi...@univie.ac.at> wrote: > Methinks that any math teaching should make learners aware of the fact that > math conventions are not laws of nature, and that ambiguous expressions may > produce different values in different systems. > > I

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread peter dalgaard
> On 18 Sep 2015, at 16:31 , John McKown wrote: > > ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations > > > If exponentiation is indicated by stacked symbols, the usual rule is to > work from the top down, thus: > [image: a^{b^c} = a^{(b^c)}], [snip] ...and

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread John McKown
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 10:04 AM, David L Carlson wrote: > Unfortunately the order of operations is not universal in computing. The > real question is whether a program performs the way it is documented. Excel > documents that unary operations take precedence over

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread Erich Neuwirth
Let me add a little bit here: When using math formulas, one should know about the parsing rules form complex expression which do not have all the necessary parenthesis. Different systems do have different parings rules. In the case of a^b^c, the expression is ambiguus because (as mentioned in a

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread Erich Neuwirth
> >> -Original Message- >> From: erich.neuwi...@univie.ac.at >> Sent: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:13:44 +0200 >> To: r-help@r-project.org >> Subject: Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation) >> >> Let me add a little bit here: >>

Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation)

2015-09-18 Thread John Kane
John Kane Kingston ON Canada > -Original Message- > From: erich.neuwi...@univie.ac.at > Sent: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 18:06:23 +0200 > To: jrkrid...@inbox.com > Subject: Re: [R] Spreadsheet math problem (exponentiation) > > Methinks that any math teaching should make