((((Ouise and family))))
'Potential'
Natter 34: Freak With No Name
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Because of Emily, I'm reading (off-and-on while doing other things) transcripts from Lizzie Borden's trial. And, no, I didn't know she was acquitted. Or about E.E. Cummings.
Thing is, 2-5 really is impossible in the set of natural numbers (the set is closed under addition and multiplication, but not under subtraction or division).
This SO makes my head hurt.
This shouldn't amuse me, but it does: Kasparov hit over head with chessboard.
Thing is, 2-5 really is impossible in the set of natural numbers (the set is closed under addition and multiplication, but not under subtraction or division).
Ooh. I know what that means! My mathematical education hasn't completely disappeared.
Ahem.
puts on math hat, which is strangely turban-like
There are several... aw hell, it just means that while you can add a natural number (1 and up, or in some definitions 0 and up, whole numbers only) to another and the result will be another natural number, and the same is true about multiplication, the same is not true for subtraction or division.
Um... here for definitions of the different sets, here for an explanation of the whole "closed under addition" thing.
I get it! Yay!
Phew.
Oh, and when my dad gave the Tao of Physics, I rolled my eyes and paraphrased the encyclopedia entry, like I was supposed to.
Signed,
Been Working To Expectation Since 1979
This SO makes my head hurt.
Translations:
"natural numbers": apples and oranges. Actual, physical things that you can count on your fingers, even if you never lost parts of your digits to frostbite*. Not decimals, or fractions, or negative numbers -- just the actual pieces of fruit. So if you try to take away more widgets than you have, you've got none left, end of story.
"closed set" is a little trickier: you say that a set is closed under a particular operation** if you can do that thing between any two members of the set without things going kablooey. You can add any two quantities of fruit and get more fruit, without slicing or dicing or buying anything on credit. You can slash any two male AtS characters.
* Now that I think of it, it was negative temperatures that led to my "numbers below zero don't exist" fight with Mrs. Wossname. Huh.
** Ugly, UGLY English. I know this. I cannot excuse it.
(doubtless x-posty.)
Huh. Never heard of Madeleine Smith. Sounds a lot like Strong Poison, though, doesn't it?
When Bunter walks in on Wimsey, who has just solved the mystery, one of the books Wimsey was reading was the Madeleine Smith trial. A classic, if you like arsenic and middle-class mayhem.
Ooh. I know what that means! My mathematical education hasn't completely disappeared.
Me too! Hooray for residual math-brain!
[And...it would have been a lot smoother had I posted this before the explanations went up. Oh well.]