Thursday, April 17, 2014

N and O are for No.

Thumbnail
 
     No. is the abbreviation for number. Why it is, I do not know. That may be the very least important thing about numbers that I do not know. What I do know is that numbers are a human construct. A construct that comes with rules, dependable rules, logical rules. Even if it sounds illogical to me.
     I just watched a YouTube video http://bit.ly/1neoEKz from  http://www.numberphile.com/ It explains how adding whole numbers from 1 to infinity results in the sum -1/12. That answer sounds like "minus one-twelfth." The man in the video explaining how this can be so is Tony Padilla. (Dr. Padilla, to his students, I'm sure.) And by-the-bye, Dr. Padilla's specialty is physics.
     To add all those numbers and arrive at a minus fraction, he first establishes two other sums, then weaves a bit of arithmetic magic and in the end is the -1/12.
     I watched the demonstration three times before I actually heard him say "you're not measuring physical infinitives in nature." and I remembered that someone once explained to me that mathematics is a language. A language that can be used to describe all kinds of things -- physics, in my opinion being the most remarkable of those things. But since you can't actually add an infinite number of numbers, you must use these other equations to get the answer. Well, of course, you do.
     Which brings to mind the Abbott and Costello routine showing three different ways that
7 X 13 = 28. You can watch them explain on YouTube. http://bit.ly/1r3cXE3 . Their mathematics may be questionable, but it's funny.
 
       

3 comments:

  1. Since we have no idea what infinity is, we must accept on faith that this guy is right. He could be doing own Abbott & Costello routine. :-)
    The View from the Top of the Ladder

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. You're absolutely right, at least for me. I haven't enough math to work it out for myself.

      Delete