2 ms·
This has probably one of the most amusing paragraphs of a math paper I have seen: "We made it hard for ourselves in order to show a method that works for all n
by gizmo686 11y ago
This has probably one of the most amusing paragraphs of a math paper I have seen:
"We made it hard for ourselves in order to show a method that works for all n.
It would have been more natural to take n = 3, which is the crucial test case
for division. If you can divide by 2, and hence by 4, there is no guarantee
that you can divide by 3; whereas if you can divide by 3, you can divide by
any n. This is not meant as a formal statement, it’s what you might call a
Thesis. We chose n = 4 instead of n = 3 because there are four suits in a
standard deck of cards, and because there is already a paper called ‘Division
by three’ [2], which this paper is meant to supersede."
Also worth noting, these two papers have the same lead author.