grammar - Using "of" before "whether" and general usage of "whether"


I was reading a mathematics text, and I came across a phrase which I thought was written incorrectly. There was a part of a sentence:



... it begs the question whether or not A=B.



and I feel this is incorrect, but I'm not sure. I think it should be written like this:



... it begs the question of whether or not A=B.



Or maybe there that's also incorrect, and there is a better form altogether? Maybe taking out the "or not" would make it even more correct, but I'm still not sure. My main problem is that I think there should be an "of" before the "whether" but I don't know why.


So, what is the correct form of this expression?



Answer



Both uses of the phrase are correct.


I would probably use the 'begs the question of whether or not A=B' as it flows better, but the 'or not' is superfluous really. Whether A+B only has two options, true or false, so the 'or not' doesn't really add anything to the phrase.


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