Re: countability of reals

mareg_at_mimosa.csv.warwick.ac.uk
Date: 01/05/05 

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 13:31:03 +0000 (UTC)

In article <mckenzie-2C54C2.13225505012005@news.aaisp.net.uk>,
        Alec McKenzie <mckenzie@despammed.com> writes:
> "Kent Paul Dolan" <xanthian@well.com> wrote:
>
>> Clue: when something has been proved to be impossible, and
>> the proof is simple enough to be understood by anyone with
>> a passing score in ninth grade algebra, posting a muddled
>> mess claiming to have done that impossible thing anyway to
>> a newsgroup frequented by folks with earned PhDs in math
>> is a fast track to ridicule and Usenet kookdom nominations.
>
>In my view it is just possible (though very unlikely) that a proof
>"simple enough to be understood by anyone with a passing
>score in ninth grade algebra" might contain a flaw so subtle that
>it has not yet been spotted by "folks with earned PhDs in math".
>
>Do you really consider this to be an absolute impossibility?

Well, personally, I would be less surprised if I were to be unexepctedly
teleported to Mars (which, according to the laws of quantum mechanics,
is not absolutely impossible) than I would be if there were to be a flaw
in the proof that there is no bijection between the rational and irrational
numbers.

Derek Holt.