Math problems too big for our brains

Ottawa Citizen via The Windsor Star ^ | November 8 2005

[ctdonath2]

Try looking up "factorial bases". There's a mind-blower.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

2 + 2 = 5, for very big 2.

[Old Professer]

Sir Francis Bacon died as a lonely and severely disappointed man.

[MineralMan]

"Try looking up "factorial bases". There's a mind-blower."

---

Now, that makes my brain hurt.

I mentioned earlier the Sumerian/Babylonian Base 60 system. We still preserve that system in our hours and minutes.

One article pointed out that Base 30 is a natural counting system, using the joints of the fingers (base of thumb counts as a joint) as counters. I immediately thought of how you could display all 30 numbers by hand position. Fascinating.

Our calendar and our time measurement system comes from Base 12 math, which can also be derived from Base 60, and probably was.

Then we have the 360 degrees of the circle, also compatible with base 60.

Longitude and Lattitude are also expressed in 60 increments.

Apparently the Mayans used Base 20 in their math.

Numbers are amazing.

[scouse]

No human can ever understand all of it, either.

When I discovered that pie are not square and corn bread was, I realized that I didn't have the capability for math.

[Centurion2000]

bump

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

Is the set of all sets that are not subsets of themselves a subset of itself?

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

Sorry, this is only defined over the range 18-49 years. After this time, n approaches nny geometrically.

[tutstar]

bump for later...

[MosesKnows]

you can prove two plus two equals four, always and everywhere.

Are you sure? How accurately can you measure zero, or two, or four? Two plus two may be 3.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 because one two was actually 1.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999; or was it the other 2.

[Erasmus]

And there ya go, except for one small detail. One of the fingers has to represent zero in Base 8. That's a problem if you count on your fingers.

But that's why God gave us belly buttons.

[MineralMan]

"But that's why God gave us belly buttons."

Gosh, and here I though I got mine from my mom. I'm pretty sure an umbilical cord was involved.

Question: Did Adam have a navel?

[Erasmus]

Apparently the reporter has never heard of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. To wit: "In any axiomatic mathematical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved within the axioms of the system."

Slight edit: "In any axiomatic mathematical system there are propositions which are true but which cannot be proved or disproved within the axioms of the system."

[tophat9000]

Really? I can prove that 2 + 2 = 11.

Yes and I can prove that 1+1 = 10.

[MineralMan]

"Yes and I can prove that 1+1 = 10."

2+2=10, too.

[tophat9000]

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary math, and those that don't! ;-P

That jokes so old, what are you, F?

[ShadowAce]

Question: Did Adam have a navel?

No.

Question: How does an asexually reproducing organism produce offspring that reproduces sexually? :)

[TX Bluebonnet]

[tophat9000]

Question: How does an asexually reproducing organism produce offspring that reproduces sexually? :)

Oddly that question is valid for both creationists and evolutionists in that both contend an asexually start

[MarkL]

42...

I wonder how many people have already posted this answer...

BTW, this really IS the correct answer to the question... Try plugging this into your c compiler:

#include
#define SIX 1 + 5
#define NINE 8 + 1

int main(void)

{
printf( "What do you get if you multiply %d by %d? %d\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE );
return 0;
}

Mark