Pulling from the archive here, the triangle of power

Neat! I was probably in complex analysis when I stopped using radicals altogether in favor of fractional powers: 3√8 = 8^(1/3). But the log notation is the worst. I still say phrases like '2 to the power of what equals 8' in my head every single time I write one!

@littmath oh no, it’s happening again

I’ve been using this notation ever since I found that video. I just write the triangle smaller and upside-down instead, it makes everything cleaner.

It's interesting to reflect on why this is even necessary for exponentiation, as it's not something that comes up for either addition or multiplication:

This was on X recently

Did we just find the new department of education!

So… this seems like it should be abstract but you’re only applying it to the operation/notations we’ve had since the sixteenth(?) century. What do you do with this triangle when you want more types of operations to be transformable?

Is this the old mathematician relaxing and trying to find the lazy but clean way to think about it... Or the acrobatic, muscular son of the mathematician demonstrating feats not usually seen by the great crowd? Five (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) stars!

probably your most controversial video

Brilliant! notation is broken.