[FRIAM] Mission to Abisko

[Frank Wimberly]

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 <profwest at fastmail.fm> 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/
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20200517/552b239b/attachment.html>