[FRIAM] Mission to Abisko

Prof David West profwest at fastmail.fm
Mon May 18 07:02:27 EDT 2020


Steve /Moderator - ignore two previous posts with too big of an attachement.
All - ignore the blank message — having a hard time getting started this morning.




Stewart talks about Erdos — "we have the proof, now let us find the Book Proof."

The attached is the start of a "proof" of the three little pigs.

davew


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 <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/ 
> -- --- .-. .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - .... . -..-. . ... ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- . .-. ...
> 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/ 
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20200518/846ad277/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Untitled.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 212311 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20200518/846ad277/attachment-0001.jpg>


More information about the Friam mailing list