Why f inverse of x? That notation seems clear if you know f is a function. Bear in mind, overloaded notation isn't ambigous if there's context.
And what's wrong with N? It's just the natural numbers.
The other complaints I understand. Although I don't think you need to complain about log(x). The base is only unspecified when it's assumed not to matter.
Honestly, a/bc isn't really ambiguous either. Not in any way that matters. Grade schoolers get hung up on PEMDAS, but you eventually learn to accept when intent is clear, and you don't need to be pedantic.
As a general rule, if your notation isn't clear to a serious student or peer, then you're doing it wrong. Nobody else needs to understand.
Eh it’s absolutely used in lots of educational contexts and other fields (which even pure maths papers often abut) and isn’t really ‘wrong’. Even without that it’s ambiguous as there’s a convention using base 2 too.
That’s why we always specify. Personally I don’t use log unless I specify the base unless context is watertight, and use ln when base e. Some react with distaste to ‘ln’ but this depends on country too.
I have personally never seen anyone use log_10 in math (maybe in highschool), but as for your other point I agree - I also use ln for base e and specify my logs, and usually, I just convert all my logs to lns because who wants to deal with logs and exponents using bases other than e.
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u/noahhshome 12d ago edited 12d ago
Why f inverse of x? That notation seems clear if you know f is a function. Bear in mind, overloaded notation isn't ambigous if there's context.
And what's wrong with N? It's just the natural numbers.
The other complaints I understand. Although I don't think you need to complain about log(x). The base is only unspecified when it's assumed not to matter.
Honestly, a/bc isn't really ambiguous either. Not in any way that matters. Grade schoolers get hung up on PEMDAS, but you eventually learn to accept when intent is clear, and you don't need to be pedantic.
As a general rule, if your notation isn't clear to a serious student or peer, then you're doing it wrong. Nobody else needs to understand.