Re: Interesting math

In article <26mdnVu8qZ6kmA7bnZ2dnUVZ_jGdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Purl Gurl <purlgurl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
blmblm wrote:


Al in Dallas wrote:
Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
Purl Gurl wrote:
Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
Purl Gurl writes:
blmblm wrote:
Purl Gurl wrote:

(snipped)

"...the integers are a subset of the rational numbers,
so indeed, a whole number is a decimal number."
Brian de Foy - Perl FAQ Maintainer

Original? How so? Seem unexceptionable to me, but maybe in
context it's not?

A whole number cannot be a decimal number. This is a well accepted
notion established by centuries' worth of mathematicians and others.

What's your definition of "decimal number" that would rule it out? In

* slips off her "vehicle code" hat, slips on her "mathematician" hat *

Please don't. That hat you're wearing in the picture outside the
church seems to suit you much better.

Ha! Ha! This * is * funny!



http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&defl=en&q=define:Whole+Number&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&defl=en&q=define:decimal+number&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

The fact that for both terms the first definition seems a little
off strikes me as a bad sign. No wonder some of my students seem
puzzled about whether zero is even.

Zero is both odd and even.

I doubt you will find many mathematicians who will agree with you
on that. However, I'm willing to listen to credible evidence to
the contrary.

I did have a somewhat entertaining discussion here in a.u.e.
a while back, with Charles Riggs, about whether there was a
sensible definition of "even" that excluded zero. I think
eventually we agreed to disagree.

Mathematicians define division by
zero as undefined. This is not true.

It's a definition, so, um, by definition it's neither true nor
false. Definitions may be useful or not useful, consistent or
not consistent with other definitions. It would surprise me to
hear that serious mathematicians talk about whether definitions
are true or false. But again, I'm willing to listen to credible
evidence to the contrary.

Division by zero yields
an infinite number set, positive and negative. Same is true
for zero divided by a number, sorta; always the same answer
for an infinite number set.

What can you be saying here .... 0 divided by 2 is something
other than 0?

Same is true for multiplication.

What is? 0 times 2 is -- what? an "infinite" number set?

By the way, when you say "infinite number set", are you
talking about one with the cardinality of the integers, or
one with the cardinality of the reals, or something else?

(And shall we talk about whether there are as many integers as
there are even integers, and what it even means to talk about
comparing the sizes of infinite sets? This could be fun!)

Zero is a very magical number and is very well defined for
all math functions. Problem is we do not have enough time
on our hands to write out an infinite number of answers.

BLM, you are well educated and intelligent. You know a
whole number does not have a decimal point and a decimal
number does have a decimal point. This difference between
a whole number and a decimal number is that simple.

I may be well educated and intelligent, but I have no idea
what distinction you're trying to make here [*]. I think we
can agree that 1.1 is not a whole number. But I can't imagine
any sensible definition of "decimal number" that would include
1.1 and not include 1.0, nor can I quite understand whether you
think 1 and 1.0 are different ways of writing the same quantity,
or different quantities, or what.

[*] Perhaps if I also had a PhD in English I would understand
better.

--
Decline To State
(But the e-mail address in the header should work.)
.

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