This shouldn't amuse me, but it does: Kasparov hit over head with chessboard.
Honestly, you meet the most appalling sort of people....
Giles ,'Chosen'
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.
Steph L. - Apr 18, 2005 5:25:11 pm PDT #6729 of 10001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
tommyrot - Apr 18, 2005 5:25:40 pm PDT #6730 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
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.
Emily - Apr 18, 2005 5:28:56 pm PDT #6731 of 10001
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola
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.
Jesse - Apr 18, 2005 5:31:30 pm PDT #6732 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
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
amych - Apr 18, 2005 5:31:41 pm PDT #6733 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
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.)
Betsy HP - Apr 18, 2005 5:58:11 pm PDT #6734 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
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.
Jessica - Apr 18, 2005 6:01:21 pm PDT #6735 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
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.]
Lee - Apr 18, 2005 6:05:25 pm PDT #6736 of 10001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.
Yay, I'm still in time to say b Happy Birthday Beth and Beej.
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 18, 2005 6:09:33 pm PDT #6737 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
Did you all know that Mary Queen of Scots had porphyria? Wicked!
Sure, that's what they say now. Note that Elizabeth had her decapitated...
Emily - Apr 18, 2005 6:17:42 pm PDT #6738 of 10001
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola
[And...it would have been a lot smoother had I posted this before the explanations went up. Oh well.]
'sokay. I believe you.