The Triangle of Power

Alexander Courchene
December 30, 2020

Contents
What Is This? 2

Terminology 4

Properties of Triangles of Power 5

Single Triangle Operations - Negation and Inversion . . . . . . 5
Keeping One Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Switching Places/Changing Triangle Types . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Other Fun Things That Happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1
 What Is This?
Currently, if we want to express that "two multiplied by itself three
times equals eight", we have three ways of doing this:

23 = 8 The exponent way (1)

√
3
8=2 The radical way (2)
Log2(8) = 3 The logarithm way (3)
This is stupid. Why in the name of crap do we have three completely
different ways of writing the exact same thing? It is not at all obvious
that exponents, radicals and logarithms are related to each other, and
this notation actively makes math artificially more difficult than in needs
to be.
Many people have tried to come up with better notation for this,
but here is one that I found which I like. It is called the triangle of
power. It looks like this:
b
a ∆c → ab = c (4)
If I want to write 23 = ?, which is asking "What is two to the third
power?", I would remove the symbol in the bottom right corner (or put
an x, or a question mark, or whatever).
3
3
2 ∆? → 2 = ? (5)
√
If I want to write 3 8, which is asking "What number to the third
power equals eight?", I would remove the symbol in the bottom left
corner.
3 √
3
? ∆8 → 8=? (6)
If I want to write Log2(8) = ?, which is asking "What power do I
raise two to to get eight?", I would remove the symbol from the top.

2
 ?
2 ∆8 → Log2 (8) = ? (7)
This way of writing it makes it a lot more obvious what we are trying
to represent with these three expressions, and it also makes it a lot more
obvious that these three forms of notation are actually representing the
same relationship.
One of the big problems with learning logarithms for the first time
is that students have to learn the properties of exponents, square roots
and logarithms three separate times, because they have to remember all
the rules for each notation separately. They rarely ever are able to figure
out that they are all related because it’s not obvious that they should
be approaching the problem from that direction at all.
In the following section, we are going to look at properties of loga-
rithms, exponents and radicals in the Triangle of Power form and see
what we can learn.
Assume that all of our variables are real numbers unless stated oth-
erwise.
However, before we can do any maths, we need to define some vo-
cabulary.

3
 Terminology
b
a ∆c
If we have a triangle that looks like the one above, we say that a is
the left of the triangle. So, b is the top and c is the right. You would
say this is triangle ABC, or tri-ABC for short. You always say the
letters from left to top to right.

b
∆c
A triangle in this form is called a left triangle, which is the same
√
as a radical ( b c). You would say this is left-bc. (The word indicates
the missing component).

a ∆c
A triangle in this form is called a top triangle, which is the same
as a logarithm (Loga(c)). You would say this is top-ac.

b
a∆
A triangle in this form is called a right triangle (not to be confused
with the ones from geometry). This is the same as an exponent (ab).
You would say this is right-ab.

4
 Properties of Triangles of Power

Single Triangle Operations - Negation and

Inversion
Here, negation is a word which means "changing the sign from positive
to negative (or vice versa)." Inversion is a word which here means,
"taking the reciprocal, or dividing one by the value."

Right Triangles
−b b
a∆ = ( a∆)−1 → a−b = (ab)−1 (8)
When you have a right triangle, negating the top inverts the whole
triangle.

⎧ b ⎧
b ⎪
⎪ a∆
⎪ b mod 2 = 0 ⎪ ab
⎪ b mod 2 = 0
b
−a ∆ = ⎨ b → (−a) = ⎨ (9)
⎪
⎪
⎪ − ∆ b mod 2 ≠ 0
⎪
⎪
⎩ −ab b mod 2 ≠ 0
⎩ a

When you have a right triangle, negating the left will negate the
whole triangle if the top is odd, or leave it unchanged if the top is even.
1
b b 1 √
b
a ∆ = ∆a → a b = a (10)
Inverting the top of a right triangle turns it into a left triangle with
a reciprocal top.
b b 1
1∆ = ( a∆)−1 → ( )b = (ab)−1 (11)
a a
Inverting the left of a right triangle inverts the whole thing. So,
negating the top and inverting the left are evidently the same operation.

5
Top Triangles
Log−a(c) = DN E → −a ∆c = DN E (12)
If we negate the left of a top triangle, we get something that is
undefined.

Loga(−c) = DN E → a∆−c = DN E (13)

If we negate the right of a top triangle, this is also undefined. Top
triangles behave badly with negation, as it seems.

Log 1 (c) = −Loga(c) → 1 ∆c = − a∆c (14)

a a

Inverting the left of a top triangle negates the whole thing.

1
Loga( ) = −Loga(c) → a∆ 1 = − a∆c (15)
c c

Inverting the right of a top triangle also negates the whole thing.
Inverting the right and inverting the left are evidently the same op-
eration.

6
Left Triangles
√ √ b
−b
−b
b
c = ( c) → ∆c = ( ∆c)−1
−1
(16)
Negating the top of a left triangle inverts the whole thing.
√ b
b
−c = DN E → ∆−c = DN E (17)
If we limit ourselves to purely real numbers, then negating the right
of a left triangle gives us something that is undefined (if we were using
complex numbers, we would get ci).
1
√
1 b b
b c = cb → ∆c = c ∆ (18)
Inverting the top of a left triangle turns it into a right triangle with
a reciprocal top. This is similar to what happened when we inverted the
top of a right triangle.
√
b 1 √ b b
b
= ( c) → ∆ 1 = ( ∆c)−1
−1
(19)
c c

Inverting the right of a left triangle inverts the whole thing. Inverting
the right and negating the top are evidently the same operation.

7
Keeping One Constant
Now, let’s see what happens when we keep the lefts, rights or tops
constant and multiply/add (or divide/subtract) two triangles.

Constant Left
x y
x y
a + a → a∆ + a∆ (20)
Nothing particularly special happens when you add two right trian-
gles with constant lefts (we can’t simplify anymore).

Loga(x) + Loga(y) = Loga(x ⋅ y) → a∆x + a∆y = a∆x⋅y (21)

When we add two top triangles and keep the lefts the same, we
multiply the rights.
x y x+y
ax ⋅ ay = ax+y → a∆ ⋅ a∆ = a ∆ (22)
When you multiply two right triangles with a constant left, the tops
get added together.

Loga(x) ⋅ Loga(y) → a∆x ⋅ a∆y (23)

There is no special thing that happens when we multiply two top
triangles with constant lefts.

We can do the same with subtraction and division.

x
Loga(x) − Loga(y) = Loga( ) → a∆x − a∆y = a∆ xy (24)
y
x
ax x−y a∆
x−y
=a → y = a ∆ (25)
ay
a∆

8
Constant Top
b b
b b
x ± y → x∆ ± y ∆ (26)
Nothing special happens when we add/subtract two right triangles
with the same tops.
√ √ b b
b
x ± y → ∆x ± ∆y
b
(27)
Nothing particularly special happens when we add/subtract two left
triangles with the same tops either.
b b b
b b b
x ⋅ y = (xy) → x∆ ⋅ y ∆ = x⋅y ∆ (28)
When we multiply two right triangles with the same top, the lefts
multiply.
√ √ √ b b b
b
x ⋅ y = x ⋅ y → ∆x ⋅ ∆y = ∆x⋅y
b b
(29)
When we multiply two left triangles with the same top, the rights
multiply.

Naturally, you can do the same things we did above with subtraction
and division.

9
Constant Right
Logx(c) ± Logy (c) → x∆c ± y ∆c (30)
If we add two top triangles with the same rights, we don’t get any-
thing we can simplify further.
√ √ x y
x
c ± y c → ∆c ± ∆c (31)
Neither can we simplify more when we add two left triangles with
the same right.

Logx(c) ⋅ Logy (c) → x∆c ⋅ y ∆c (32)

Here, we kept the rights constant and multiplied two top triangles.
There is nothing special that happens here either. Keeping the right
constant is pretty boring so far.
√ √ √ x y x⊕y
x
c⋅ y c= x⊕y
c → ∆c ⋅ ∆c = ∆ c (33)
When we keep the rights constant, and we multiply two left triangles,
we get something interesting (finally)!
Here, we are introducing a new operation, which is ⊕ (oplus).
1 1 1 1
a ⊕ b = ( + )−1 = ( + )−1 = b ⊕ a (34)
a b b a
So, when we keep the rights constant and multiply two left triangles,
the tops get oplussed together.

10
Switching Places/Changing Triangle Types
Now, we are going to try changing one type of triangle to another. For
this section, the item on the righthand side of the equals sign (=) is the
result.

Changing To Right Triangles

1
√ 1 b b
b
c = c b → ∆c = c∆ (35)
To change the left triangle to an equivalent right triangle, you invert
the top.

Loga(c) = b ↔ ab = c (36)
This relationship (converting from the logarithmic to exponential
form) becomes
b
a ∆c = b ↔ a∆ = c (37)
So, you switch the result with the right (for a top triangle) or the
top (for a right triangle).

Changing To Left Triangles

The relationship we described to change a left triangle to a right triangle
works in reverse as well.
1
√
1 b b
b
a = b a → a∆ = ∆a (38)
We can use the relationships in the previous part to get to this:
1 1 √
Loga(c) = ↔ ab = b a = c (39)
b

11
 1
1 b b
a ∆c = ↔ a∆ = ∆a = c (40)
b

Changing To Top Triangles

We already derived this part in the first two parts, just do those rela-
tionships in reverse.

ab = c ↔ Loga(c) = b (41)
√
b 1
a = c ↔ Loga(c) = (42)
b
which becomes
b
a ∆ = c ↔ a ∆c = b (43)
b 1
∆a = c ↔ a∆c = (44)
b
Another way we can write these, by using only one triangle, is this:
b b
a ∆c = a∆c (45)
1
b b
c ∆a = a∆c (46)
The first equation is obvious, it’s just the same two things. It tells
us nothing (or at least nothing new).
The second equation, tells us what we learned in a previous section:
when we switch the left and the right, we have to invert the top to keep
the two triangles the same.

12
Other Fun Things That Happen
Now that we’ve gone over some basics, let’s try converting some more
properties of logarithms, exponents and radicals.
First, though, let’s remember these basic operation rules:

Triangle Operation Rules

+ ⊕
×∆× ∆× ×∆ (47)
The second rule, for example, can be read as "when you add two top
triangles, the lefts multiply" or "when you multiply two right triangles,
the tops add".
The other two rules read in similar ways. Go back to the previous
sections and make sure you understand where these come from.
Also, we have a couple more "trivial" identities

Trivial Triangle Identities

0 1
a ∆1 a ∆1 (48)

Now, normally you would need to write these out three separate
times. For example, you would need to write the first one as:

0
√
0
Loga(1) = 0 a =1 1=a (49)
and the second one as:
√
Loga(a) = 1 a1 = a 1
a=a (50)
That’s the beauty of the triangle of power. You can clearly see that
all three of these things are the exact same relationship and you only
need to write it out once.

13
 Moving along, let’s go to our first rule.

Logx(y)Logy (z) = Logx(z) → x∆y y ∆z = x∆z (51)

This looks a lot nicer and is easier to remember in the triangle of
power notation. We can remember that if we multiply to two triangles
in this form, the y on the right of the first and the y on the left of the
second appear to "cancel out", leaving us with x on the left and z on
the right of our final triangle.
Another thing that is easier to remember with this notation are the
inverse operations.
In the old way, there are six inverse operations. Some of them are
just memorised, some of them you probably never even learned because
they are rarely talked about, and they all look a bit messy.

Logx (z)
√
x = ( x z)x = z (52)
Logx(xy ) = Log √y z (z) = y (53)
√
Logx (z)
√
z
z = xz = x (54)
This is a horrible mess! What were we thinking?!

x∆z x
x ∆ = x ∆=z (55)
∆z
x∆ y = y ∆z = y (56)
x∆ ∆z
y x∆z
∆ y = ∆ z=x (57)
x∆
Here, I made the font a little bigger in order to see the smaller tri-
angles better. You can imagine these inverse operations by dragging

14
the smaller triangle up to fit the bigger one. The values in the same
locations "cancel", leaving you with a single variable.
All of the inverse operations now follow the same pattern, which
makes them a lot easier to remember. Instead of remembering six sep-
arate things, you only need to remember one idea (the dragging and
canceling idea).

Another thing that can be made better with the Triangle of Power is
clearing up the ambiguity in towered exponents. For example, if I have:
3
33 (58)
3
Does this mean (33)3 = 273 = 19, 683, or does this mean 3(3 ) = 327 =
7, 625, 597, 484, 987?
As you can see, one is about 20,000 and the other is over seven
trillion. There is a clear difference.
In Triangle notation, we can clear this up immediately:

3 3 3 ∆3
(33)3 → 3∆ 3(3 ) = 3 ∆ (59)
3∆

Yeah, yeah. You could just write the parantheses, but this is cooler.
However, you may be thinking that it is getting a bit cluttered. Is there
a shorthand for this?
Also, what about if I am using a software which does not let me write
out the triangle? Am I cursed to use the boring, old way forever?
Fear not, for I have one last notational trick to show you.

15
Writing This Notation In Words

16