Posted on 11/08/2005 8:48:52 AM PST by RightWingAtheist
You've divided by zero, which is why you reach an impossible result.
Repeat after: math is consistent, math is consistent, math is consistent. If I reach a nonsensical result, I did something wrong.
Ummm, build better computers?
Don't build them too good!
True, but it's fun to play mind games with those that forgot the "rules".
"We are animals..."
Well, there's your first mistake, Professor Nimrod.
The whole reason for the exercize is in order to print maps with the fewest colors (least printing costs)
You dont want the same color for any two countries that touch each other (like canada and mexico can both be green, but not US and mexico)
It is ALWAYS possible to do with 4 colors or less
Working as a programmer, I may have warped my kids forever while they were in elementary school. They just couldn't believe that I started from 0 and counted ...8, 9, A, B, etc. They just knew that 10 came after 9. Daddy had to be wrong. (My use of 24-hour time also threw them for a loop.)
Not true. When expressing the equation as 2 + 2 = 4, then it is implied that we are working in a base for which the symbol 4 is defined, which would be base 5 or higher. In any of these defined systems 2 + 2 = 4. To say that 2 + 2 = 4 is false is never logically consistent, because for the systems in which this is so the symbol 4 is undefined, therefore the statement is not provable.
"Base 8 is like base 10, really... if you're missing two fingers.
"
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.
Assume x=y
x+x2 = x2+y
x-x2-y = x2
x-x2-y-xy = x2-xy
(x-y)(x+1) = x(x-y)
x+1=x for all x
divide by zero error.
Math is not a form of knowledge. It is an intellectual construct, useful in obtaining knowledge.
You can't prove the sun will rise tomorrow, but you can prove two plus two equals four, always and everywhere.
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."
..or less?
"Not true. When expressing the equation as 2 + 2 = 4, then it is implied that we are working in a base for which the symbol 4 is defined, which would be base 5 or higher. In any of these defined systems 2 + 2 = 4. To say that 2 + 2 = 4 is false is never logically consistent, because for the systems in which this is so the symbol 4 is undefined, therefore the statement is not provable."
Hah! You make a good point. Just as I can definitively say that 2+2=11 means that I'm using base 3, 2+2=4 means I must be using base 5 or higher. You win!
Majikthise and Vroomfondel...representatives of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Thinking Persons...declare that they stand in solidarity with the Pencil Pushers Union!
Is that always true?
"Is that always true?
"
Yes, except when it isn't. [grin]
Which finger do you use to represent 0 in base 10? If you don't need it in base 10, you don't need it in base 8 either.
Mathematics is a subset of statistics where the variance equals zero.
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