Re: [lojban] gei argument order

[vitci'i <celestialcognition@gmail.com>]

On 07/11/2012 09:47 PM, MorphemeAddict wrote:
> Can anyone tell me why «gei» has such a weird argument order (exponential
> notation trinary mathematical operator: exponential order of
> magnitude/value/base; [b * (c to the a power)])?
> 
> AIUI: gei li 3 li 5 li 10 = 5*(10^3) = 5000
> 
> I would expect the 3 and 10 values to be together, and specifically, in the
> order 5 10 3.

Elision.

You can omit arguments from the end of {gei}, in which case they take
default values: 10 for the base, and 1 for the coefficient. Thus:

gei li 3      =     10^3
gei li 3 li 5 = 5 * 10^3

This allows {gei} to be used not just for exponentiation, but for
scientific notation and generally for concisely expressing approximate
values of very large numbers.

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