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The sequence starts with a unary operation (the successor function with n = 0), and continues with the binary operations of addition (n = 1), multiplication (n = 2), exponentiation (n = 3), tetration (n = 4), pentation (n = 5), etc. Various notations have been used to represent hyperoperations.
Furthermore, because many operators are not associative, the order within any single level is usually defined by grouping left to right so that 16/4/4 is interpreted as (16/4)/4 = 1 rather than 16/(4/4) = 16; such operators are referred to as "left associative".
Also unlike addition and multiplication, exponentiation is not associative: for example, (2 3) 2 = 8 2 = 64, whereas 2 (3 2) = 2 9 = 512. Without parentheses, the conventional order of operations for serial exponentiation in superscript notation is top-down (or right -associative), not bottom-up [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] (or left -associative).
For each integer n > 2, the function n x is defined and increasing for x ≥ 1, and n 1 = 1, so that the n th super-root of x, , exists for x ≥ 1. However, if the linear approximation above is used, then y x = y + 1 {\displaystyle ^{y}x=y+1} if −1 < y ≤ 0 , so y y + 1 s {\displaystyle ^{y}{\sqrt {y+1}}_{s}} cannot exist.
Perhaps most familiar as a property of arithmetic, e.g. "3 + 4 = 4 + 3" or "2 × 5 = 5 × 2", the property can also be used in more advanced settings. The name is needed because there are operations, such as division and subtraction , that do not have it (for example, "3 − 5 ≠ 5 − 3" ); such operations are not commutative, and so are ...
For instance, the addition chain for 31 leads to a method for computing the 31st power of any number n using only seven multiplications, instead of the 30 multiplications that one would get from repeated multiplication, and eight multiplications with exponentiation by squaring: n 2 = n × n n 3 = n 2 × n n 6 = n 3 × n 3 n 12 = n 6 × n 6 n 24 ...
[8] [9] In programming languages such as Ada, [10] Fortran, [11] Perl, [12] Python [13] and Ruby, [14] a double asterisk is used, so x 2 is written as x ** 2. The plus–minus sign , ±, is used as a shorthand notation for two expressions written as one, representing one expression with a plus sign, the other with a minus sign.
This set is ordered lexicographically with the least significant position first: we write f < g if and only if there exists x ∈ β with f(x) < g(x) and f(y) = g(y) for all y ∈ β with x < y. This is a well-ordering and hence gives an ordinal number. The definition of exponentiation can also be given by transfinite recursion on the exponent β.