Thursday, December 01, 2005

math is a myth

What is 5? Is 5 real or is it a lie? Is 5 something someone made up and declared, as if he were as infallable as the pope, that 5 not only exists but it is absolutely 5 all of the time.

Despite what many would have you beleive, math is not finite.

Math is a concept not an absolute. 5 is an adjective, not a noun. 5 does not exist in and of itself without adding a noun with which it agrees or limits.

If math were absolute we couldn't have "different methonds" of accounting and a ton would be a ton, not a metric ton or some other variation of weight. If math were absolute then we wouldn't need guestimates.

Cows. Let's use cows as an example.

You say there are 5 cows. Five. Does that mean there are a herd of cows? Is 5 a herd? or is 5 an adjective that limits the quantity of cows IN a herd?

When does the description of a quantity of cows become necessary to have that quantity become a herd? Is two a herd? I don't think so, do you? How about three? I want someone to show me a herd of cows because five is no more absolute than herd. Both imply quantities but they are NOT in and of themselves anything tangible.

Lines. They are also fake.

A line is a visual image that our eyes see, but line, in and of itself does not exist.

Sky meets water, and we call that horizon, because our eye sees the place where the two images come together. But in reality no line exists.

Sun, Moon and earth all lie in space. We imagine the measure of a straight distance between these objects and call them lines. But in space no such thing as line exists. Someone made it up.

So much for Geometry. Geometry measures lines that don't exist, and spcaes between lines that don't exist, with numbers that are merely numeric ajdectives.

And they say that Math is an absolute science.

I don't think so.

Comments:
You passed the test!
 
That is why I LOVED geometry. You're right nothing is absolute. If someone owns only one cow, someone who owns two may have a herd according to him.
 
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