Re: A dead subject

From: Laserman (jimzotos_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 08/04/04 

Date: 4 Aug 2004 06:36:39 -0700

"Robert J. Kolker" <robert_kolker@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<wNWPc.241934$XM6.93909@attbi_s53>...
> Laserman wrote:
>
> >
> > Bob, you can look at my discriminant b^2 + 4ac for the same thing.
> > The important thing is that the expression underneath the radical is
> > positive, not how the expression is written (if you are interested in
> > real roots) The "standard" formula is about the clumsiest way you can
> > solve second degree equations.
>
> Maybe so, but it is completely general, so it wins.
>
> Bob Kolker

There is nothing general about it! Setting it equal to zero does not
generalize it, does not do anything for it! It just makes it more
complicated. We are all just used to doing that because that is what
we were TOLD to do from a young age. We were told that we HAD to set
it equal to zero otherwise we could not find the roots. That is a
LIE. I have shown that we were LIED to. It was probably
unintentional, the instructors did not know any better. The ones who
told us did not know that it could be done a better way. Most things
in life require the process of negotiation. An experts opinion,
although should be respected, is not final. Especially when
contradictory new evidence becomes available. We have to keep an open
mind.

yours truly,
Laserman