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Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Exception to the commutative law for addition!

I've been looking for years for an exception to the commutative law for addition [and subtraction], and at last I've found it! One way to state the commutative law is that
a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c
and I was always amazed to find that it held, time after time after time.

So you can imagine how excited I am to have discovered an exception:

Yesterday at midnight, Blogger bumped up my age from 63 to 64. That is,
[current year] - 1943 = 64.
But check this! I graduated from college in 1964. I was 21 years old. That is:
1964 - 1943 = 21.
But it is now 42 years later
[current year] - 1964 = 42
and
21 + 42 = 63, not 64.
That is, as an explicit exception to the commutative law:
[current year1] - 1943 ≠ [current year2] - 1964 - 21.
...Oh, sh_t...(1) Blogger (obviously!) changed the calender. (2) And I didn't.

5 comments:

  1. Me likes this version of the post.
    More in line with your style.
    It's not everyone who gets the chance to peel off a year. Iffin I thought Mathematics would have helped me that way, Me might have taken it a bit more seriously

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  2. Well, blogger tells me I'm 250...and I'm not game enough to analyze that one! ;)

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  3. Bertrand Russell was lecturing one time about how, if you introduce a logical contradiction into an argument, you can prove anything. Someone in the audience challenged him, then, to assume that 1 + 1 = 2 and to prove from that that he [Russell] was the Pope.

    Without a pause, Russell replied: "Well, I am one, and the Pope is one. But, since 1 + 1 = 1, the Pope and I are one and the same. That is, I am the Pope."

    Get game, Lee. Analyze it!

    Scary Monster, your writing style leads me to think that you were the "Anonymous" who closed with "STOMP" in a comment on my "Will you still need me" post. I wondered what that meant, and Lee suggested something having to do with dancing. Were you suggesting that my blogging is a bit like stomp-dancing and I should keep it up? <smile>

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  4. Moristotle, sir. Me is Scary Monster. Me has been lurking and prowling through your posts without comment for the last week or so. When finally Me decided to voice me opinion, the computer wouldn't allow me to do so hence the anonymous comment.
    Me is somewhat capricious, and forgetful, therefore some of me comments are signed with a "STOMP" and others are not.
    Although Me believes that you certainly do stomp and make an distinct impression, Me not too sure about the dancin part.

    STOMP (snort)

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  5. Thanks, Scary Monster. Just plain old stomping, then, no connection with dancing intended.

    You have an interesting persona. I have yet to check out your blog, but I will, possibly over the weekend.

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