Is the Notation for Inverse Functions Ambiguous?

[Dickfore]

Just imagine that advanced civilizations in space have missed us because we've been sending pi into space, and not tau

Well, they wouldn't have been so advanced to not recognize we were sending $\tau/2$.

 

[Redbelly98]

Especially if we send in binary, you'd really have to be an idiot not to recognize it.

 

[TylerH]

Of course, the reason the Greek's chose to give a symbol for $\pi$ rather than $2\pi$ is that the cirumference of a circle is $2\pi r$ or $\pi d$ and it is much easier to measure the diameter of a log than the radius.

Since when are logs circular?

 

[Dickfore]

Since when are logs circular?

By right about the same time cows became spherical.

 

[jhae2.718]

By right about the same time cows became spherical.

Wait...cows aren't really spherical?

 

[TylerH]

Theoretically...

 

[Dickfore]

Wait...cows aren't really spherical?

Just in case you haven't been aware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow"

 

[dimension10]

Well I certainly consider pi to be an unfortunate historic mistake. Math would be slightly more beautiful with tau. But this is the way it is and we need to stick with it.

Other unfortunate mistakes are the definition of the gamma function and the notation $$\subset$$ to mean subset or equal. But there's nothing we can do about those now...

Yes. Notations like sin^-1 are a bit ambiguous quite often.

 

[TylerH]

Yes. Notations like sin^-1 are a bit ambiguous quite often.

IMHO, it's the notation $sin^n(x)=\left( sin(x) \right)^n$ that is ambiguous, rather than inverse notation. In general, $f^{-1}$ is ubiquitously the inverse of f.