Thanks for this.
Mojave
(feeling very stupid these days)
Well, I wasn’t setting values for the derivative, but rather for the function itself. Granted, my mistake was thinking of 0 as a constant rather than a point. And, since |x| is continuous function, I jumped to a bad conclusion about the derivative of 0 (which, ftr, I did know that it didn’t exist even by my definition of |x|. I did say it was a “smart-ass question” in my title.)
Mathochist, gimme a break here. I’m incredibly rusty, I’ve spent the last year without any mathematics at all just trying to keep shit together. Of course reading about the gamma function made me go “D’oh!” but only in the context of “I was somewhat acquainted with it at some point in the past, yes.”
My bad, I was just playing the odds with “he” (since I’m guessing the majority of statistics majors are male).
I’m sure your misstatements about derivatives are just rust as you say (sorry if I implied otherwise), but that said, I don’t think Mathochist or anyone else has been particularly harsh in correcting them.
Nah, I’m just feeling intellectually deficient & defensive, my apologies for being so. I mean, I read the answers here and I think “soooo… why didn’t I think of that?” </Brini Maxwell>
You just colloquially restated your question as “hey, what if we set f’(0)=0?”. No matter which f you meant that to apply to, it’s still nonsensical on its face.
And get sloppy, soft statisticians? Now drop and give me 20!
Yes sir! 1, 2, 3, er… what’s next? 