On 5-Nov-08, at 8:55 PM, Robert Dodier wrote:

>
> William Stein wrote:
>
>> Would you consider this weird if you read it in a paper, or
>> would you know how to interpret it?
>>
>>  "Let $f = x^3 + x + 1$ and consider $f(10)$."
>
> I'm not so sure I know what to do with that.

I find this bizarre.  I am absolutely certain that I want to view $f$  
as a polynomial in one variable and evaluate it at 10.

I can think of lots of alternate ideas (evaluate everything to  
bottom!) but I believe none of them are common.  Can you cite a paper  
that uses the notion of $x^3$ denoting the three-fold composition of a  
function $x$ and considering $f = x^3$ and $f(10)$ intending the three- 
fold composition of $x$?

Nick

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