Historic maths problem 'cracked'

BBC ^ | Nov. 27, 2003 | Dr. David Whitehouse

[Physicist]

Is there anything that is truly invariant? On a practical level, you have to leave room for expansion for (plumbing, carpentry, flooring, etc.).

Are you suggesting that these things depend upon spatial orientation?

Also, the theory may not apply in the vacinity of a black hole, for instance.

That redounds to my point. In the vicinity of a black hole, lengths may well not be rotationally invariant.

[Yeti]

That redounds to my point. In the vicinity of a black hole, lengths may well not be rotationally invariant.

But then neither would the length of your tape measure. Or would it?

[Physicist]

But then neither would the length of your tape measure. Or would it?

It wouldn't, but you can determine that by measuring the angle it subtends from some distance away. In other words, the angles of a triangle in a curved space won't add up to 180 degrees (which presumably is why Consort picked the black hole example in the first place).

[AD from SpringBay]

"It is difficult to describe for non-mathematicians but the way I solved the problem may have practical applications."

I'm always suspicious of answers like this. It reminds me of preachers who say things like, "Now this won't make any sense to you, but I've studied it for years and take my word . . ." Not saying I have a great mathematical or theological mind, but if it don't work small it probably won't work big.

[aruanan]

Three women decide to buy a gift for a friend that costs 30 dollars. Each woman chips in 10 dollars.

After the cashier rings up the sale, she informs the women that the item was on sale for 25 dollars so she gives one of the women five one-dollar bills with which to divide up between the women.

Each woman gets one dollar back meaning they have now each paid 9 dollars.

9 dollars times 3 women equals 27 dollars.

There is only 2 dollars left to divy up.

27 plus 2 equal 29. What happened to the 30th dollar?

There is no missing 30th dollar. There are two dollars to be accounted for. The bold sentence is where the misdirection comes in. Everything else follows from that or is irrelevant to it. The dress was $25. $5 was returned to one of the women to redistribute. She gave each of the other two women $1 and kept $3 for herself. She should have returned $1.66 to the other two women and then they could have flipped for the remaining two cents.

[vollmond]

Isn't mathematics just a symbolic or notational representation of agree-upon human logic...and isn't human logic somewhat flawed?

And if the whole of human logic is flawed, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Consort - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

[Consort]

And if the whole of human logic is flawed, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Consort - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society?

Is that a rant, a whine, or a bit of satire? Better yet, are you proving my point? Is it an inductment of our educational institution or of American society? No...it's an indictment of the whole human race.

Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

Is that a tirade, a bloviation, a diatribe, or a banter?

[SC DOC]

[RightWingAtheist]

Actually, when I think about it, this isn't sufficiently "bad" science for the Cold Fusion-types to get riled about. On the other hand, it won't take long before the "gender warriors" proclaim this as another attempt at "male suppression of women's achievments" in science, and start drawing battle lines.

[Consort]

rotationally invariant

Is that part of the language of math and have we yet decided if math represents flawed human logic?

[vollmond]

Sorry, that was my favorite line from the movie Animal House, tweaked a little bit. I meant my comment to be funny, but I didn't really mean to make light of your original comment. I apologize if it seems that way.

[Consort]

It's been a long time since I saw Animal House. My original comment was one of those off-the-wall things I enjoy doing.