Question

if you have x^2=0, does that mean there is a multiplicty of 2, and if so, why? I know that multiplicity is the number of times a zero occurs, so in this case, x=sqrt0, but how does that make it multiplicity 2? And also, what about x^3=0 - is the multiplicity 3 in this case?

Answer 1

X would always have to be replaced with an expression related or comparing to zero for this equation to be true. The only number that can be multiplied by itself to get 0 is 0, so X would have to be 0 to get zero exponents of that same number, negative or not.