iainuts
Mechanical
- Sep 24, 2003
- 552
In Roark, the section regarding flat, circular plates has a statement regarding singularity function brackets. It states:
"The singularity function brackets < > indicate that the expression contained within the brackets must be equated to zero unless r>ro, after which they are treated as any other brackets."
All of these equations have <r-ro>^0 such that if r<ro, then per the statement made in Roark, we must equate what is inside the bracket to zero. The problem then is trying to raise zero to the power zero which by any calculator I've ever owned is nonsense.
I've always assumed what they mean is that the expression is zero. Unfortunately that's not what they say. What they say, if taken literally, is nonsense.
Note that if r>ro then what is contained within brackets doesn't matter since it is always raised to the zero power and it then equals 1 and the entire expression is simply something times 1. It seems the use of these singularity function brackets is a very confusing way of presenting an if/then statement.
I wonder if I've made the correct interpretation or not. If r<ro, should the entire variable equate to zero, and if not what should it be?
"The singularity function brackets < > indicate that the expression contained within the brackets must be equated to zero unless r>ro, after which they are treated as any other brackets."
All of these equations have <r-ro>^0 such that if r<ro, then per the statement made in Roark, we must equate what is inside the bracket to zero. The problem then is trying to raise zero to the power zero which by any calculator I've ever owned is nonsense.
I've always assumed what they mean is that the expression is zero. Unfortunately that's not what they say. What they say, if taken literally, is nonsense.
Note that if r>ro then what is contained within brackets doesn't matter since it is always raised to the zero power and it then equals 1 and the entire expression is simply something times 1. It seems the use of these singularity function brackets is a very confusing way of presenting an if/then statement.
I wonder if I've made the correct interpretation or not. If r<ro, should the entire variable equate to zero, and if not what should it be?