3 ms·
You are referring to https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/01_Proofs_by_Calculation.html#id6 https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/01_Proofs_by_Calculatio... Tha
by lupire 3y ago
You are referring to
https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/01_Proofs_by_Calculation.html#id6 https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/01_Proofs_by_Calculatio...
That's hilarious. It's the brick joke, in math.
https://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2012/01/brick-joke.html?m=1 https://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2012/01/bri...
It's a great example, made terrible (for teaching) because the punchline is never explained.
Your excerpt left out key information, which is the secondary hypothesis that
am+bn=1
Hint: what are a and b? I won't wait for you to find values that satisfy the hypotheses.
It's the same flavor as: assume a=b+1, and b=a+1. Then a-b=b-a
You can prove that p=>q, sometimes, even if p is false. (Especially if p is false!)
A later chapter provides the punchline.
https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/07_Number_Theory.html#the-square-root-of-two https://hrmacbeth.github.io/math2001/07_Number_Theory.html#t...