From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Mon Nov 29 2004 - 04:25:35 GMT
On 28 Nov 2004 at 19:04, Erin wrote:
I saw a site where somebody made some math joke and I didn't get it,
but it seems like it might be relevent to this but I don't know
enough about math to know what this was about. But somebody said a
statement about 2+1 =3 (I think this was it, might be another simple
addition problem) and that we know that for sure... Then somebody
said not in mod 3 it isn't. Does that make sense to anyone?
msh says:
Hi Erin. Thinking about math on a Sunday evening, huh? And I
thought I was the only weirdo on this list.
Well, if they said mod 3, then they don't know what the mod operator
is all about. They probably meant base 3. In a base 3 system you
have only three digits, 0, 1, 2. So, in base 3, 2 +1 =10. That is,
there is no "3" in base 3, so, to express the number after 2 you need
to go to 2 digits, which is 10.
But changing bases just changes the symbols you use to represent
numbers. In base 3, the symbol "10" represents the same number of
things as does "3" in base 10.
The observation made by "somebody" above is something I heard often
from first year logic students, usually those who were taking logic
to satisfy the quantitative reasoning requirement on their way to
becoming Sociologists or something. It's like saying "Uno plus dos =
tres," then having somebody say "O yeah? Not in English it doesn't."
Anyway, just my binary 10 cents worth.
Best,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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