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  3. is math discovered or invented?

is math discovered or invented?

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  • A amagitech

    What is your opinion

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #26

    Math is a description tool, like a language it is invented.

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    • A amagitech

      What is your opinion

      P Offline
      P Offline
      peterchen
      wrote on last edited by
      #27

      According to Plato, discovered. [^]

      L 1 Reply Last reply
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      • H HobbyProggy

        Ron Anders wrote:

        by the One True Living God.

        There is no such thing :)

        Rules for the FOSW ![^]

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        P Offline
        P Offline
        peterchen
        wrote on last edited by
        #28

        Yes, of course - but she still put it there!

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        • L Lost User

          There is, I am it.

          H Offline
          H Offline
          HobbyProggy
          wrote on last edited by
          #29

          Heretic XD

          Rules for the FOSW ![^]

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          • A amagitech

            What is your opinion

            D Offline
            D Offline
            Duncan Edwards Jones
            wrote on last edited by
            #30

            All human endeavours (language, culture, maths, science) are abstractions and therefore the level of abstraction constitutes invention. Only reality is real.....man. :omg:

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            • J Johnny J

              You mean Munchies[^]? :confused:

              Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
              Anonymous
              -----
              The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
              Winston Churchill, 1944
              -----
              I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
              Me, all the time

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #31

              How often did you have him lying flat in front of your door? :)

              The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
              This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
              "I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.

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              • A amagitech

                What is your opinion

                L Offline
                L Offline
                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #32

                Muharrem B. wrote:

                What is your opinion

                That it is Maths.

                Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004

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                • A amagitech

                  What is your opinion

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Marc Clifton
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #33

                  Both. Marc

                  Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Contributors Wanted for Higher Order Programming Project!

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                  • L Lost User

                    Muharrem B. wrote:

                    What is your opinion

                    That it is Maths.

                    Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004

                    D Offline
                    D Offline
                    Duncan Edwards Jones
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #34

                    ..although the question should probably take the past tense.

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                    • A amagitech

                      What is your opinion

                      W Offline
                      W Offline
                      W Balboos GHB
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #35

                      Mathematics must include all of its branches and that would include arithmetic. So say, multiple objects existed and were observed. That, however, doesn't make mathematics a discovery. It is the association of multiple objects as a group, and making that initial "one and one are different than one" ( . . . and we'll so note it . . . ) that is where mathematics begins. This is conceptual - and thus - an invention. Two rocks sitting near one another does not have to be thought of as two rocks. Why not simply "A rock" and "A rock" ? That still works. At the same time, they may not be near - but one could still conceive of them as two items that are in some (conceived!) category and then associated. Our mathematics is a description of observations - and not necessarily the only way one could describe the universe.

                      "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                      "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                      "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                      • A amagitech

                        What is your opinion

                        W Offline
                        W Offline
                        W Balboos GHB
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #36

                        Official Pun Reply: You can count on a number of possible answers.

                        "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                        "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                        "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                        • A amagitech

                          What is your opinion

                          P Offline
                          P Offline
                          Power Puff Boy
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #37

                          Watch this: [^] I would say: Math is.

                          Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...

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                          • A amagitech

                            What is your opinion

                            S Offline
                            S Offline
                            Samira Radwan
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #38

                            Discovered :) 1. Mathematics is the language of nature. 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature. from PI[^]

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                            • J jeron1

                              I wonder who discovered hatred?

                              "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              Ron Anders
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #39

                              Satan

                              J H 2 Replies Last reply
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                              • H HobbyProggy

                                Ron Anders wrote:

                                by the One True Living God.

                                There is no such thing :)

                                Rules for the FOSW ![^]

                                if(this.signature != "")
                                {
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                                }
                                else
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                                R Offline
                                R Offline
                                Ron Anders
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #40

                                Is so. I know him personally. :-)

                                H 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • J Johnny J

                                  I normally use a hammer... :doh:

                                  Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
                                  Anonymous
                                  -----
                                  The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
                                  Winston Churchill, 1944
                                  -----
                                  I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
                                  Me, all the time

                                  S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  Simon_Whale
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #41

                                  We know that's how you get Debbie back to yours for the evening, Now what about problem solving :laugh:

                                  Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians. Help end the violence EAT BACON

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                                  • R Ron Anders

                                    Satan

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    jeron1
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #42

                                    What does Celine Dion have to do with this? :)

                                    "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

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                                    • A amagitech

                                      What is your opinion

                                      B Offline
                                      B Offline
                                      BillWoodruff
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #43

                                      Mathematics is a cognitive virus which jumped from fleas to early hunter-gatherer hominids in the late Paleolithic, driving said hominids to evolve to be able to count up to twenty (ten fingers, ten toes) quickly. The proto-human hosts reached a modus vivendi with the virus since such counting was useful when figuring out who to kill next, or, who to enslave next. Since it is an insatiable virus, it soon turned its early homo sapiens hosts into shepherds and farmers where there were more things to count (goats, cattle, sheep, baskets, sheaves, jars). At this late stage of human co-habitation with Mathematics virii, it is safe to say it is as much an archaic endosymbiotic part of our nervous-system as mitochondrial DNA (once single-celled organisms "captured" by Eukaryotas) is a part of our cellular structure. The rare human being in modern times who is able to free themselves of the Mathematics virus completely is usually considered an idiot, or insane, or becomes the founder of a new religion. Their lives are short, and their death often violent. Mathematics appears able to mobilize its hosts into insane clown posses which collectively attack external threats; the exact mechanism by which this social-engineering occurs is not clearly understood, probably because those who reach the point where they could explain it are murdered, or "disappeared," or sent to mental asylums. Cantor and Godel are good examples of Mathematics defending itself by directing the minds of those rare geniuses who realize what Mathematics actually is into the black-hole of considering the relative magnitude (ordinality, "Aleph") of infinities. Both, these brave souls ended their lives in mental illness, haunted by fears of being poisoned. Well, what can you say about something that you can't imagine yourself, or the world, without ? Without Mathematics we would be ... what ? ... as happy as dogs? cheers, Bill

                                      «I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center» Kurt Vonnegut.

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                                      • P peterchen

                                        According to Plato, discovered. [^]

                                        L Offline
                                        L Offline
                                        Lost User
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #44

                                        Well. You can use a language (math is a language) to describe your breakfast, you can use it to write a star wars novel. Both descriptions are abstractions of something that existed or not. However they are both abstractions. You can of course discover star wars, but that is not what is meant here I think.

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                                        • A amagitech

                                          What is your opinion

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                                          P Offline
                                          PIEBALDconsult
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #45

                                          As the relationships are discovered, a language for describing them is invented.

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