I did mathematics up to University level and finally petered out at Category Theory, which I never got the hang of. Here's the fun: I *never* saw the asterisk used for multiplication in my mathematics or physics courses. And I never saw any operator at all used for exponentiation. Asterisk was a superscript operator for conjugation or duals. Had nothing to do with products.
Fortran COBOL, and PL/I used. and still use, * for multiplication and ** for exponentiation. APL used × for multiplication and * for exponentiation. Could I recommend that R allow × as a synonym for * ? It has been the mathematical sign for multiplication for >400 years, when a sign is used, and it's been available on computers for decades. On Sat, 30 Aug 2025 at 03:05, Leo Mada via R-help <r-help@r-project.org> wrote: > > Dear Rolf, > > I join this discussion a little bit late. > > Indeed, the '**' operator is a very poor choice for exponentiation. I can > give some examples to justify my claim. Notice that '**' and '*' would almost > always get mixed in real mathematics. > > Fortunately, I am used to "^"; otherwise, I would have had a very hard time > to debug the *monster*: > https://github.com/discoleo/R/blob/master/Math/Poly.System.S5.Ht.Formulas.Derivation.Coeffs.R > > Those are the coefficients of a polynomial of order 7 (see below for further > information). And I have plenty of examples. > > Unfortunately, some "programming" languages mix '*' and '**'; which makes any > work with polynomials a nightmare! > > I "found" something on this topic - hope everyone gets a little bit amused: > https://github.com/discoleo/R/blob/master/Math.NewTerminology.wiki > > Sincerely, > > Leonard > > =========== > Regarding the *Monster*: > > It enables to solve a particular system with 5 variables with cyclic symmetry: > x1+x2+x3+x4+x5 = R1 > # Note: this is NOT the full E2 > x1*x2+x2*x3+x3*x4+x4*x5+x5*x1 = R2 > E3 = R3 > E4 = R4 > E5 (= x1*x2*x3*x4*x5) = R5; > > This system can be transformed into a system that can be solved using a > polynomial of lower order than the original system. > > Unfortunately, I do not have a methemtical theory yet for the Ht5 System. I > worked it out the hard way; it is almost finished, but I did not have any > more time during the last 2 years. > > For some (very) basic details, see: > https://github.com/discoleo/R/blob/master/Math/Poly.System.md > > Again, I did not have time to write anything more thoroughly. > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
