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The choice of even and odd seems arbitrary, I've never seen it explained anywhere. Could somebody explain the motivation for defining even and odd functions? --[[User:Sciyoshi|yoshi]] 05:32, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
:Even when you divide in half you have mirror image on each side of divisor (so it equals itself). Odd you're one man short which makes people sad. To signify sadness/negativity, we use the minus sign. [[User:69.143.236.33|69.143.236.33]] 06:29, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
::As far as I'm aware, the terms ''odd'' and ''even'' are derived from the exponents of some basic odd and even functions ; ''x''<sup>2</sup> has the property that ''f''(''x'')=''f''(-''x'') -- i.e. ''x''<sup>2</sup>=(-''x'')<sup>2</sup>. Similarly with ''x''<sup>4</sup>, ''x''<sup>6</sup> and so on. Since these have even exponents, all other functions which have this property are referred to as even. The opposite is true for ''x'', ''x''<sup>3</sup>, ''x''<sup>5</sup> and so on, so they are referred to as odd functions.--[[Special:Contributions/86.165.254.170|86.165.254.170]] ([[User talk:86.165.254.170|talk]]) 16:08, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
==Negative exponents==
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