I need to sleep or go back to grade 3. Sorry everyone. Dont report me to the math authorities!
-----Original Message----- From: "Randall Reetz" <rand...@randallreetz.com> To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution@lists.runrev.com> Sent: 4/20/2009 5:46 PM Subject: RE: convert to scientific notation You are correct brian. Sorry. But i know when i was younger and smarter i had an equasion that converted a number to scientific notation without counting digits. Used the power "^" function somehow. -----Original Message----- From: "Brian Yennie" <bri...@qldlearning.com> To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution@lists.runrev.com> Sent: 4/20/2009 5:31 PM Subject: Re: convert to scientific notation Randall, You want the nth root and you are doing it correctly, but have a false assumption (the 10th root of 100 is NOT 2). I showed how to derive 10^x = 100, which is more relevant to scientific notation. Scientific notation does not involve taking the 10th root of a number, which I why I figure you are confused. Example: 2,098,000 = 2.098 x 10 ^ 6 No 10th roots involved, in fact you can just count digits. > Not confused by what i mean. How do i get the nth root of a number? > > -----Original Message----- > From: "Brian Yennie" <bri...@qldlearning.com> > To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution@lists.runrev.com> > Sent: 4/20/2009 5:03 PM > Subject: Re: convert to scientific notation > > Randall, > > I think you are confusing two different concepts. > > 10^2 = 100, not 2^10 = 100. > > What you want is something like this: > > Step 1) 10^x = 100 > Step 2) log 10^x = log 100 > Step 3) x log 10 = log 100 > Step 4) x = log 100 / log 10 > > In short, you need to use logarithms and you'll get a formula where x > = log y / log z. > > If you were trying to solve x^10 = 100, then you could do what you > suggest and just raise both side to the (1/10)th power. But that > number will not be 2 -- it's about 1.58. > > >> I can't remember how to use power function "^" to find the nth root >> of a number. To find the 2ndth root of a number we can use the >> "sqrt()" function. But to find the nth root???? >> >> For instance, lets say I want to convert a number to scientific >> notation (the 10th root of that number)... I used to know how to use >> the power function to do this. Anyone remember how to do it? >> >> I tried to get the 10th root (scientific notation) of 100 (which >> should = 2) by: 100^(1/10) ... but that isn't it. >> >> Any ideas? I feel brain dead. >> >> Randall [truncated by sender] _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution