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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 93 responses total. |
russ
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response 17 of 93:
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Jun 24 03:48 UTC 2003 |
And in the vein of the previous geek giggles:
Q: Why are the flights in and out of Warsaw always half-empty,
with only the seats on the left side of the aisle in use?
A: Because any system is unstable if it has Poles in the right half plane.
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rcurl
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response 18 of 93:
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Jun 24 06:57 UTC 2003 |
You can stabilize those Poles in the right-half plane with some positive
feedback.
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lynne
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response 19 of 93:
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Jun 24 15:52 UTC 2003 |
<I *think* the counting in octal joke is a paraphrase of a Tom Lehrer joke
from the song "New Math". But can't swear that that's the absolute original
source.>
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remmers
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response 20 of 93:
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Jun 24 17:53 UTC 2003 |
Did St. Augustine really say that?
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dcat
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response 21 of 93:
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Jun 24 19:14 UTC 2003 |
From Salman Rushdie, whose 56th birthday was last week:
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases
to exist."
"Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and
unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms."
((resp:20 - I'll try to find another citation for the Augustine, and a
source, if I can.))
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aruba
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response 22 of 93:
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Jun 24 20:02 UTC 2003 |
One of my math professors in college had that quote from St. Augustine on
his office door.
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orinoco
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response 23 of 93:
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Jun 24 22:11 UTC 2003 |
Maybe St. Augustine was talking about numerologists? I could see thinking
they were in league with Satan.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 93:
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Jun 24 23:42 UTC 2003 |
Yes, what would Augustine have meant by "mathematician"? In that age I
would expect the meaning was "astrologer" or "horoscoper". The online OED
gives such usage.
Which raises the questions of what language did Augustine speak and what
is the proper translation of the word he used at the time? Some wag must
have translated it as mathematician.
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jmsaul
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response 25 of 93:
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Jun 25 02:37 UTC 2003 |
Sorta like the "virgin" thing... ;-)
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aruba
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response 26 of 93:
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Jun 25 03:47 UTC 2003 |
I assume Augustine was writing in Latin.
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dcat
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response 27 of 93:
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Jun 25 06:42 UTC 2003 |
According to several posters to the Historia Matematica mailing list [1], the
Augustine quote is from the second book of "De Genesi ad Litteram" ("The
Literal Meaning of Genesis", according to posting #92 (below)).
In [2], Barry Cipra provides the original Latin:
Quapropter bono christiano, sive mathematici, sive quilibet impie
divinantium, maxime dicentes vera, cavendi sunt, ne consortio daemoniorum
irretiant.
[1] http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/009
0.html
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0091.html
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0092.html
[2] http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0097.html
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dcat
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response 28 of 93:
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Jun 25 06:44 UTC 2003 |
It's said that in Hell, the alcohol is packaged in Klein bottles.
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jep
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response 29 of 93:
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Jun 25 11:46 UTC 2003 |
re resp:28: Heh!
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orinoco
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response 30 of 93:
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Jun 25 14:27 UTC 2003 |
www.perseus.tufts.edu says that "mathematicus" can refer to mathematicians
or to astrologers.
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rcurl
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response 31 of 93:
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Jun 25 16:41 UTC 2003 |
We must conclude that Augustine was mathematically illiterate, if he didn't
make a clear distinction.
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flem
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response 32 of 93:
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Jun 25 17:16 UTC 2003 |
You must wear really big hats, rane.
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rcurl
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response 33 of 93:
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Jun 25 19:07 UTC 2003 |
What's that mean? Augustine was versed in philosophy, rhetoric and religion.
He studied Latin but apparently didn't much care for Greek, where he might
have encountered mathematics as we know it (Euclid, etc). He had a
rather numerological perspective on real mathematics - his "perfect" number
was, in fact, 6. When he speaks of mathematics, keep in mind his exposition
on number given at
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0145.ht
ml
which reads like the work of mathematicians he railed against.
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gelinas
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response 34 of 93:
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Jun 25 20:37 UTC 2003 |
That definition of a "perfect number" is still in use, and still being
taught.
At the time of Augustine, 'mathematics' was 'philosophy': mystical
significance was attached to just about everything.
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aruba
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response 35 of 93:
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Jun 25 23:09 UTC 2003 |
Perfect numbers were defined by the Pythagoreans, according to Eric Temple
Bell, and explored by Euclid, according to Herbert Westren Turnbull (both in
Volume I of The World of Mathematics). So Augustine either read the Greeks
or read someone who read the Greeks.
I think one should be careful not to judge a person by the standards of a
time other than his own. Augustine was living in a world that had little
use for mathematics, so we can't really blame him for finding little use for
it himself.
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rcurl
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response 36 of 93:
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Jun 26 00:48 UTC 2003 |
I think it is more likely that he had little use for mathematics for some
of the same reasons that people here have stated they have little use
for much of mathematics. His "field" was something else.
But thanks for reminding me of the mathematical definition of a "perfect
number", which does indeed predate Augustine by several centuries. Knowledge
of those must have come down by several routes, including astrology and other
forms of mysticism. What got me was the obvious impression in Augustine that
there is somehow something "perfect" about a "perfect number".
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aruba
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response 37 of 93:
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Jun 26 02:16 UTC 2003 |
Well, the Pythagoreans were big into attaching emotional significance to
numbers and mathematics in general. They were a strange lot.
There really wasn't a lot of mathematics going on in Europe between
Archimedes and the Renaissance. So Augustine, in 300 AD, really didn't
have a lot of positive mathematical role models. In general, what
scholarship there was in all fields was coupled pretty tightly to
religion.
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void
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response 38 of 93:
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Jun 26 19:54 UTC 2003 |
re #28: http://www.kleinbottle.com/drinking_mug_klein_bottle.htm
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gelinas
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response 39 of 93:
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Jun 26 20:40 UTC 2003 |
(I'm tempted to order one.)
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dcat
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response 40 of 93:
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Jun 26 21:54 UTC 2003 |
"ACME KLEIN BOTTLE - Where there's one side to every problem"
I'm also tempted, but since they're $80, not very tempted.
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void
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response 41 of 93:
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Jun 27 04:52 UTC 2003 |
I've been tempted to order either a Klein Stein or an Acme Klein
bottle for a while now. So far, I've resisted the temptation.
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