Philip Ronald Dutton
independent
Columbia, SC
Registered: Feb 2004
Posts: 172 |
real numbers: complex or not ?
Why treat the Real numbers ( minus the integers ) with the same "dignity" as the Integers? In other words, at the point of definition of the real numbers (back in history) why did those thinkers decide that they wanted the real numbers (minus the integers) to afford such luxuries as "can be defined" or "can be computed with some algorithm."
Numbers such as PI (or other irrational numbers) might not really be numbers. Why do people keep "casting" PI to the mold of "definability" via substitution of a formula? Is it a number or is it not?
Maybe PI and her other cousins are simply computations (or algorithms) - call them green little men- which accidentally got cast as numbers because we force the use of an interface of numbers. Our arsenal of experimental probes are always numbers. The probes bounce off the target (Pi) and we are still looking at numbers. But does that mean the thing is a number?
We define our irrational numbers implicity via algorithmic operations such as division... did you catch that? We D E F I N E numbers like Pi to be equal to some algorithm. For example, is PI equal to 3.1415... ??? NO! It is equal to a parameterized division operation.
Will PI speak up? Why are you content to stand in the crowd of numbers when you are not a number?
Are you for PI or are you against her?
Free PI from numerics foundation dot com.
Thanks.
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