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Unread 09-08-2005, 14:14
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Re: impossible statements

Quote:
Originally Posted by worldbringer
Now, what about the second proof?
It's another example of roots gone bad:
Quote:
...take the 4th root of 1...
There are four 4th roots of 1:
1
-1
i
-i
Raise any of these to the 4th power and you get 1.

The main thing to remember from this is that taking roots is not something you can safely do to both sides of an equation unless you can figure out which root is required in order to satisfy the result.
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