RE: MD New Level of Thinking

From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue Nov 30 2004 - 04:05:51 GMT

  • Next message: Platt Holden: "RE: MD New Level of Thinking"

    Scott,

    Well, if he meant modulo arithmetic, then it's a distinction without
    a difference: my base analysis holds. He's still wrong, for the same
    reasons.

    I thought maybe he was thinking of the common math operation, mod,
    that is very useful in computer programming and other places, which
    divides two numbers and returns only the remainder. So 20 mod 3 is
    2.

    Best,
    msh

    On 29 Nov 2004 at 8:42, Scott Roberts wrote:

    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)
    >
    > --
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