what the hell IS mathematics..?

[888]

Oooh, a googglewhackblatt!

Hecticator!

 

[laptop]

Hecticator!

Millenium grout?

 

[bluestreak]

so run it by me again.

this maths lark... wtf?

 

[laptop]

so run it by me again.

this maths lark... wtf?

An alarming number of mathematicians hold to the Platonic view that numbers really do exist out there.

Helps them get through the day at work, I guess; philosophers tend to snort at this.

Proper mathematics (the kind that goes "consider all possible number systems" or "consider all possible systems of algebra" for example) is a game. A very strict game. With an unreasonable tendency to have something to do with the world. My guess is that that's because it's exploring the space of possible games that human minds can play.

 

[bluestreak]

meh, i prefer a good poem. you know where you are with poetry.

 

[laptop]

you know where you are with poetry.

In the old age black was not counted fair,
Or if it were it bore not beauty's name;
But now is black beauty's successive heir,
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:
For since each hand hath put on Nature's power,
Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who not born fair no beauty lack,
Sland'ring creation with a false esteem:

Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.​

 

[bluestreak]

see, nice and simple. maths is confusing and scary.

 

[laptop]

see, nice and simple.

But people have been puzzling for the best part of 400 years about to whom it might be addressed, let alone what it's saying to him/her/it...

* Feels a "dancing about architecture" moment approaching *

 

[bluestreak]

But people have been puzzling for the best part of 400 years about to whom it might be addressed, let alone what it's saying to him/her/it...

* Feels a "dancing about architecture" moment approaching *

innit! all lovely and uncomplicated in its confusion. who knows who it's really for or why, the pleasure is in the words and the wondering.

 

[laptop]

the pleasure is in the symbols and the wondering.

Same goes for

 

[DaveCinzano]

Millenium grout?

millennium

where did all the subs go, eh?

 

[laptop]

millennium

Google gives "Millennium grout" 0, "Millenium grout" 1 ...

where did all the subs go, eh?

Off to learn descriptive linguistics?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Google gives "Millennium grout" 0, "Millenium grout" 1 ...

if google told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?

 

[laptop]

if google told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?

Your search - "laptop - jump off a cliff" - did not match any documents.

No

 

[DaveCinzano]

 

[laptop]

 

[bluestreak]

Same goes for

means nothing to me squire but if it floats yer flotilla then knock yourself out!

 

[Good Intentions]

What Euler's identity means (and for which the old smartarse is given a bar seat at St Gabriel's Eternal Alehouse) is that you take three ridiculous, irrational numbers which for some reason are very important (pi - ratio of the radius of a circle to it's circumference - 3.14 ; e - the ratio of all natural growth and decay - 2.71 ; i - the root of all complex numbers, square root of -1), put them together, and get the single most meaningful answer in the universe out. Woah. I wish I could go back to time to Archimedes and go "Dude! I know you always wondered why pi is such a stupid number. Here's the reason! In some small but meaningful ways, the universe makes sense!".

 

[Good Intentions]

Do you know how many real things can be described usefully as having imaginary components? AC power, for one.

AC voltage, when plugged into an oscilloscope, looks like a sine wave - it goes up, comes down, goes negative, goes back up, etc. AC current follows the same waveform, and so does AC power (the product of voltage and current)

However, if you had another dimension (the imaginary one), the signal isn't a sine wave, but a line spinning from the origin of a cartesion grid, so the sine wave becomes a circle and the signal at any time the radius of that circle.

Cool, hey?

Now you do power, which is a product of voltage and current, and you have another circle, easily comparable to both the current and voltage circle. Supercool.

 

[Mation]

The first person to make the really obvious joke gets a slap.

Something about 69s? e?

 

[General Ludd]

Maths is the study of interesting axiomatic systems.

 

[Good Intentions]

Maths is the study of interesting axiomatic systems.

The general study of said systems in abstract terms.

Otherwise it would be too easy