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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Error at xml_doc.cc:428 in kspread.po
From:       "Erik K. Pedersen" <epedersen () stny ! rr ! com>
Date:       2001-05-01 10:21:50
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Tirsdag 01 Maj 2001 04:03 skrev Roman Maurer:
> "Erik K. Pedersen" wrote:
> > >  Well I understand that the result is y=x^(1/n); where y > 0. If that
> > > is the case, SQRTn is not a very good name election for that function.
> > > They probably should say NRT (nth root of )...
> >
> > I don't think it is so bad. the way you write this mathematiclly is a
> > squareroot character with an extra n in it, so essentially SQRTn.
>
> When the "square root with an extra n" has n=3 it's not called SQUARE root
> any more - it's called "the cube root" or the "n-th root" in general.
> Pablo is right, expression "square root" for "n-th root" is mathematically
> incorrect for n!=2.
>
> On the other hand, while plain TeX uses notation $\sqrt{1+x}$ for
> square roots and $\root n \of {1+x}$, you can actually write them
> in LaTeX as $\sqrt[n]{1+x}$.  So such inconsistency should not be
> a new thing to Unix users.  :-)
>
> I personally think that we should use the same expression as MS Excel
> (but don't know what that expression is).

Well yes, I am professor of mathematics, and I am used to $\sqrt[n]{1+x}$, 
which mnemotechnically is easy, and that really is what matters. 

Erik

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