Discussions concerned with knowledge of measurement, properties, and relations quantities, theoretical or applied.

I appreciate that you are submitting your math problems in this forum. I love maths, and I want to share my love for maths with others. However, if I provide you with hints, instead of a full demonstration, you would benefit much more.

So, this is what I propose :

- Tell us what you find most difficult or confusing about it.
- Show us your work or thoughts on this question.

To DarrenLo and Diana :

What do you think of this approach ?
Giacomo
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I need to add the following :

To DarrenLo, Diana and others : what do you think of my approach ?
Giacomo
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I agree totally. "Give a man a fish...". That is why I have not responded to several of the homework problem posts that you have given hint for.
Darren

DarrenLO
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To the students :

When you provide a proof or a solution to problem, please cite the definition(s) and theorem(s) needed to solve a problem.
Giacomo
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I like science, like physics, but mathematics freaks me out.
Jennifer
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Jennifer, I am sorry to tell you that you cannot do physics without maths. I always tell it like it is.

I was in the same boat. I was an A-student in High school, always got As in math in High school.
But maths in University is a different ball game. I freaked out too. I just couldn't handle the heavy duty math.
Zack
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Here's a reminder :

When posting a problem,

> tell us what you find most difficult or confusing about it.

> show us your work or thoughts on this question - even if you're sure they're wrong
Giacomo
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DarrenLO wrote:I agree totally. "Give a man a fish...". That is why I have not responded to several of the homework problem posts that you have given hint for.
Darren

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you can sell him fishing equipment.”—Author unknown

:^)

zolobobo
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There are so many variants of that wise saying. Here's one I like:

"Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for a day. Give him a religion, and he will starve to death praying for a fish".

Sorry for the digression.

BioWizard

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Good humor!
Giacomo
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While my interest is more in the common language, the fact that so much of it is borrowed or recycled and redefined in mathematics and sciences may be a source of difficulty. In particular, language carried over into areas of mathematics involving limits unfortunately imply a process. If I'm not mistaken, this can be a stumbling block. This occurred to me on seeing the neat proof for .9999...=1 and being rather surprised that I understood it.
SmallMind
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Hello everyone,

My name is Emily, and I am from Vancouver. I enjoy probability/statistics and combinatorics.
Math Girl
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Hello Emily, welcome to the math forum. How did you find us?
Giacomo
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hey btw I was wondering do you need to get on with graphs in order to have a good understanding of maths? I tend to work much better with words and verbal concepts rather than pictures and visual concepts :(, which is why I like algebra but cannot get to grips with graphs and the like.
HamerD
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Some problems require graphs or geometrical figures other problems do not require any.
Leica
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Thanks, Giacomo. How did i find this site? Well, I know your sister, Michele. We chat online almost daily.
Math Girl
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Explaining how you arrived at an answer is more valuable than the answer itself
Giacomo
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Im not at all a math student, quite opposit but despite being total dummy in math it always atracted me, something magical about it
I have two questions - which math books/homeworks could someone recommend for my 9 years old son as in schools they 3 years apart playing with coordinates and symmetry and other trivial things
I do beleive that this exact science must be taught very well to make people THINK but i starting to beleive that for the goverment better NOT to make thinkers from people:)
another question is very silly, is there any theory that 1+1=3?.. I know it sounds silly but it what i see often in dreams and i have tiny idea why it goes in my head but well..would be nice to hear YES or NO
Thank you
ForestGirl
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ForestGirl wrote: is there any theory that 1+1=3?..

Well, if the 1's are the masses of two objects and you speed them up to a velocity equal to 0.7454 the speed of light, then the total mass of 1 + 1 becomes 3.

But probably this is not what you're looking for... :°)

neuro
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The operation of addition, and the concepts of 1 and 3, are defined typically via the Peano Axioms. Based upon the standard definitions which we use, 1+1 cannot equal 3. However, you could dream up your own mathematical system in which the operation of addition, or the numbers 1 and 3, were defined in a different way. We could sit around and cook up systems like that all day. This is perfectly analogous to the fact that we can sit around and make up new words or even new languages. However, nobody would pay the slightest attention to us because it wouldn't be useful in any kind of way.

linford86
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linford86 wrote:The operation of addition, and the concepts of 1 and 3, are defined typically via the Peano Axioms. Based upon the standard definitions which we use, 1+1 cannot equal 3.

That would be a logician's answer.

An algebraist might say that integral domains are structures which model "numbers", and this is where we should look for insight. Any integral domain always has the integers as a subring. It is a trivial theorem that in all integral domains that $1 + 1 \neq 3$

linford86 wrote:However, you could dream up your own mathematical system in which the operation of addition, or the numbers 1 and 3, were defined in a different way. We could sit around and cook up systems like that all day.

Well... a good question is: are there any non-contrived situations where this sort of thing occurs?

I can sort of guess one: when Claude Shannon first invented digital logic for his MSc thesis in the 1930s, he used + as "or". In electrical engineering you still occasionally see this notation. And if you only look at the least significant bit of numbers, that is say $x \equiv y$ if and only if $x % 2 = y % y$, then under Shannon's reading of + we have $1 + 1 \equiv 3$. This is a bit torchered; but I wouldn't be surprised if this was "true" in the context of some hardware description language out there...

xcthulhu
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