Timeline for Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 6, 2022 at 1:48 | comment | added | Steven Landsburg | @MoisheKohan : It is not unusual in mathematics for the same word to have several definitions depending on context, and I think all that is happening here is that people are using the word "parallel" in a perfectly well defined way that they fully understand and that happens to be different than the way you had in mind. Some people (including me) believe that a tangent to a circle is normal to the diameter. I do not think that counts as a false belief in mathematics just because "normal" also means "fixed under conjugations". | |
| Feb 10, 2021 at 1:37 | comment | added | Moishe Kohan | @ChanBae Mathematics starts by establishing common terminology and axioms. This is what Greeks realized over 2000 years ago. Sadly, this understanding was lost with changes in math education in the last century. The thing is, math is part language and part science. You cannot separate the two and claim that inability to understand definitions is just a matter of terminological disagreements. | |
| Feb 9, 2021 at 13:37 | comment | added | Solveit | I feel like this is a confusion of terminology and not mathematics. The definition of parallel being used in the Business Insider article is clearly not 'lines that do not meet and are a constant distance apart' or whatever the official definition of parallel is. It is closer to 'distinct lines that go in the same direction'. Insofar as there is a false belief, it is that there is a coherent notion of 'same direction'! But this is not essential to the belief that lines that go in the 'same direction' can meet in some kind of geometry, which is a belief that is closer to true than false. | |
| Feb 9, 2021 at 4:39 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | i.redd.it/r7etb5kayl961.jpg | |
| S Feb 8, 2021 at 16:44 | history | answered | Moishe Kohan | CC BY-SA 4.0 | |
| S Feb 8, 2021 at 16:44 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Moishe Kohan |
