• shastaxc@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        15 minutes ago

        Assuming both x represent the same number. There’s no reason to assume the ellipses should include x-x. Why would alphabetic order be involved at all?

      • copd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        16 hours ago

        Technically there is a (x - 𝑥) in there. U+1D465 != x so this post is a little meh

        • MBM@lemmings.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          11 hours ago

          Mathematicians do weird stuff to get more letters, but I’ve never seen anyone use x and 𝑥 for different things

          • joshthewaster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 hours ago

            They also wouldn’t want to be ambiguous. If I was trying to write this problem the a, b, c… would get replaced by something like a_1, a_2,…, a_26 to be clearer. This problem works as a fun gotcha but isn’t something that would come up in the real world.