Hello, everyone! I realized today that we're nearly halfway through 2010, and I'm still not sure how I should be pronouncing this year. Does anyone have a hard-and-fast preference?
I predicted earlier this year via our blog that this would be a problem, and used it to set up a pretty useful GMAT tip that can help you immensely on the math section:
http://blog.veritasprep.com/2010/01/gma ... ek_08.html Originally posted on New Year's Day
Raise your hand if you've cringed this week as someone wished you a happy "Oh-Ten", which, though technically correct (the year 2010 has an "oh" in front of the "ten") is practically wrong (they didn't as you how "oh-oh-nine" ended up for you). That zero that we've been used to including in front of the year for the last decade is officially out. Spread the word!
There is one other way in which the zero can actually help you out of a pretty common awful situation. On most automated answering services for corporate phone numbers ("press one for English, two for Spanish, etc.), hitting zero repeatedly will put you through to an operator much more quickly, and you can effectively "zero out" of the frustrating phone mail system.
On the GMAT, you'll also have opportunities to "zero out" of some tight spots. Consider the question:
If 3^x * 4^y = 531,441, and x and y are both integers, what is the value of y?
Seemingly, this question would require an awful amount of trial-and-error as you attempt to find a combination of x and y to satisfy the equation. A more astute look, however, proposes a fairly significant problem: Because the equation produces an odd number, 3^x cannot be multiplied by an even number, so any multiple of 4 in the 4^y term would ruin the equation.
Therein lies your clue - the 4^y term must somehow be made odd in order for the equation to hold. Taking 4 to any positive exponent would produce an even number - by definition, an even number multiplied by itself is going to produce an even product - but exponential properties provide us with an opportunity to "zero out":
Any number to the power of 0 (x^0) will equal 1. (note: 0, itself, is the exception to this rule...and to many rules. We'll explain this one below.)
You may remember this rule from high school, and you may remember it being a little awkward if you simply were told to memorize it. Here's why it's true:
x^1 * x^(-1) = x^0 (we know this because of the rules for multiplying exponential terms that have the same base)
x^1 * x^(-1) = x/x (we know this because a negative exponent means that you move that term to the denominator, another exponent rule)
Therefore:
x^0 = x/x, and we know that x/x is going to equal 1
This won't work for 0, because you can't divide by 0, and this is why 0 is the exception to this rule.
Because taking 4^0 is our only hope to make that term odd, y must be 0 so that the equation can hold, and 0 is therefore the answer to that question.
To summarize, setting an exponent equal to zero is a remove an "undesirable" exponent term by setting it to 1. Be aware of this unique property and you'll be able to "zero out" of a seemingly-paradoxical or convoluted exponent problem.
