Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science

From: Neil W Rickert (rickert+nn_at_cs.niu.edu)
Date: 03/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 05:32:13 +0000 (UTC)

Albert Wagner <albertwagner@cox.net> writes:

>Sorry, I don't remember reading that message. At any rate, I was
>asking for a clarification of the 'mathematical' meaning of
>'multiple', and was not looking to refute anything. Apparently
>both 4 and -4 are considered multiples of 2, which does in fact
>contradict common usage.

In a context involving talk about integers, "x is a multiple of y" is
shorthand for "x is an integer multiple of y". This just means that
there is an integer n such that x = ny.

Since -4 = (-2)*2, and -2 is an integer, we see that -4 is a
multiple of 2.

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