• @SzethFriendOfNimi
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    372 months ago

    That assumes that 1 and 1 are the same thing. That they’re units which can be added/aggregated. And when they are that they always equal a singular value. And that value is 2.

    It’s obvious but the proof isn’t about stating the obvious. It’s about making clear what are concrete rules in the symbolism/language of math I believe.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      This is what happens when the mathematicians spend too much time thinking without any practical applications. Madness!

      • tate
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        192 months ago

        The idea that something not practical is also not important is very sad to me. I think the least practical thing that humans do is by far the most important: trying to figure out what the fuck all this really means. We do it through art, religion, science, and… you guessed it, pure math. and I should include philosophy, I guess.

        I sure wouldn’t want to live in a world without those! Except maybe religion.

      • rockerface 🇺🇦
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        102 months ago

        Just like they did with that stupid calculus that… checks notes… made possible all of the complex electronics used in technology today. Not having any practical applications currently does not mean it never will

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months ago

          I’d love to see the practical applications of someone taking 360 pages to justify that 1+1=2

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months ago

            The practical application isn’t the proof that 1+1=2. That’s just a side-effect. The application was building a framework for proving mathematical statements. At the time the principia were written, Maths wasn’t nearly as grounded in demonstrable facts and reason as it is today. Even though the principia failed (for reasons to be developed some 30 years later), the idea that every proposition should be proven from as few and as simple axioms as possible prevailed.

            Now if you’re asking: Why should we prove math? Then the answer is: All of physics.

            • rockerface 🇺🇦
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              12 months ago

              The answer to the last question is even simpler and broader than that. Math should be proven because all of science should be proven. That is what separates modern science from delusion and self-deception

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      Not a math wizard here: wouldn’t either of the 1s stop being 1s if they were anything but exactly 1.0? And instead become 1.xxx or whatever?

      • @whotookkarl
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        2 months ago

        In base 2 binary for example the digits are 0 and 1. Counting from 0 up would look like 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111, 10000, etc

        In that case 1 + 1 = 10

      • @lath
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        12 months ago

        1.xxx and 1.xxy are still 2 numbers, so 1+1=2.

        Gottem.

      • Kogasa
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        12 months ago

        It depends on what you mean by well defined. At a fundamental level, we need to agree on basic definitions in order to communicate. Principia Mathematica aimed to set a formal logical foundation for all of mathematics, so it needed to be as rigid and unambiguous as possible. The proof that 1+1=2 is just slightly more verbose when using their language.