On Sun, May 17, 2020, at 10:29 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote: > A famous proof that is on God's or god's book: > > Thm:. The square root of two is not rational. > > Proof: Assume sqrt(2) = p/q a fraction where p and q have no common factors. > Square both sides of the equation so > p*p/q*q = 2. Therefore p*p = 2*q*q so > p*p is even which means p is even. So p*p is a multiple of 4. Therefore q*q > is even which means p and q are both even contradicting the assumption that p > and q have no common factors. Therefore sqrt(2) is not rational. QED > > Constructivists do not accept proof by contradiction because it depends on > the law of the excluded middle. Is this all correct, Jon? > --- > Frank C. Wimberly > 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, > Santa Fe, NM 87505 > > 505 670-9918 > Santa Fe, NM > > On Sun, May 17, 2020, 9:17 PM Prof David West <[email protected]> wrote: >> By John L. Casti and Anders Karlqvist >> >> Casti seems to hail from Santa Fe — anybody know him? >> >> Our conversations involving metaphor and story and science prompted me to >> reread this book over the weekend. I would like to highly recommend it to >> everyone on the list. >> >> The subtitle of the book is "stories and myths in the creation of >> scientific 'truth'." >> >> Jon, Frank and anyone else who identifies as a mathematician will enjoy / >> find interesting the chapter by Ian Steward, "Secret Narratives of >> Mathematics." From the chapter: >> >> "A proof is a story. Not any old story. It has to take off from the >> hypothesis and end by confirming the conclusion. Not end with the >> conclusion, by the way — any more than a novel is obliged to end with the >> hero and heroine riding off together into the sunset. The story ends when >> the conclusion is firmly pinned down. (This is where you stop and put your >> Halmos symbol.) >> >> If a proof is a story, then a memorable proof must tell a ripping yarn." >> >> Lot's of fun stuff about evolution, computational thinking, algorithmic and >> ascetic storytelling, something for everyone interested in science, how >> science is done, science as communication, science and prediction. >> >> davew >> >> -- --- .-. .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - .... . -..-. . ... >> ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- . .-. ... >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/FRIAM-COMIC> >> http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > -- --- .-. .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - .... . -..-. . ... > ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- . .-. ... > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >
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