A Rejection of Mediocrity

Hey guys:

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while; I’ve been really busy. More about that later.

Kendra White, President of the CHC Student Council, and I were having an ultra-logical discussion. It’s fun, but it sometimes gets too weird. . . .

Like this:

In formal logic, it is sometimes possible to reason from an incorrect assumption to a correct conclusion using a valid argument form.

However, in math, this is impossible. All = signs are absolutes, so you cannot go from an incorrect equation to a correct equation.

Until now.

Observe:

{beginning (incorrect)} (n) = (-n)
{square entire equation} (n) x (n) = (-n) x (-n)
{finish} n2 = n2
{square root} n = n

There you have it. From “n = -n” (incorrect), we get “n = n” (correct).

Have we detected a problem with algebra?

For a short time, comments will be enabled so that you can tell me what you think.

Have fun!

In Him,

David S. MacMillan III

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2005 at 2:04 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.