RE: MD New Level of Thinking

From: Scott Roberts (jse885@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Nov 29 2004 - 15:42:06 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Roberts: "RE: MD New Level of Thinking"

    Erin, Mark,

    No, mod 3 (short for modulo 3) is what the person meant. Arithmetic mod 3
    means you cycle back to zero after 2 (and mod 4 means cycling back to zero
    after 3, etc.) If you wanted to do arithmetic on your odometer, for example
    (assuming a 5-digit odometer), then if it says 99900 and you want to know
    what it will say after driving another 150 miles, then you add 99900 + 150
    (mod 100000) to get 50. So 2 + 1 (mod 3) = 0.

    - Scott

    > [Original Message]
    > From: Mark Steven Heyman <markheyman@infoproconsulting.com>
    > To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
    > Date: 11/28/2004 9:22:54 PM
    > Subject: RE: MD New Level of Thinking
    >
    > 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)
    >
    > --
    > InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors
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    >
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