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        riddles >> easy >> (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
        
(Message started by: evergreena3 on May 13^th, 2004, 2:11pm)

Title: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by evergreena3 on May 13^th, 2004, 2:11pm

Solve the following:

(X-A)*(X-B)*(X-C)*(X-D)...(X-Z)

EverGreenA3
(p.s. I did a quick search for this, and didn't find it listed anywhere. Please forgive me if it is a duplicate.)

Title: Re: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by towr on May 13^th, 2004, 3:08pm

on 05/13/04 at 14:11:45, evergreena3 wrote:

(p.s. I did a quick search for this, and didn't find it listed anywhere. Please forgive me if it is a duplicate.)

You're forgiven :P

Title: Re: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on May 13^th, 2004, 3:31pm

Quote:

You're forgiven

No, he's not (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1052552112;start=13). ;)

Title: Re: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by Icarus on May 13^th, 2004, 4:36pm

Besides which, there is nothing to "solve". This is an expression, not an equation! "Simplify" would be the most appropriate instruction, though "evaluate" does also work in this case.

Title: Re: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by kellys on May 13^th, 2004, 11:40pm

Or if you really want to be mean, I like 'expand'

Title: Re: (X-A)*(X-B), etc.
Post by Benoit_Mandelbrot on May 14^th, 2004, 9:29am

Expanded is ::[hide] 0!!!!! This is because you will eventually get to ...(X-X)..., which is zero, and anything times zero is zero! The answer is zero. [/hide]::