On 12/16/2013 11:26 PM, LizR wrote:
On 17 December 2013 19:01, meekerdb <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
I know. I was just taking 10^80 to mean "a very big number" which of
course depends
on context. I generally do applied physics and engineering and so 10^80+1
= 10^80
for physical variables.
That reminds me of a joke...
...but you've probably heard it already, so I will stick to the point.
10^80 + 1 may happen to be a prime number (I leave the proof (or disproof) up to Stephen
Paul King as an exercise in applied mathematical reasoning) in which case it is very
different from 10^80 in terms of its mathematical properties, even though it is the same
when used physically "for all intents and purposes" - since we already know that 10^80
is divisible by 10 (how did I work that, out without even being able to imagine 10^80
objects? It's like magic...! :)
Which is a true statement in mathematics. But suppose I said the number of protons in the
universe was 10^88, would you then know that the number of protons was divisible by 10?
Brent
Notice that it's a trick question.
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