Re: math development curiosity question

"david petry" <david_lawrence_petry@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

The basic ideas are simple enough that I shouldn't have to tell you
what rules to apply.

Ah, so I should just guess what you think is obvious
enough to need no explanation.

I'm trying to get across the idea that there is a real problem that
needs to be solved. When scientists make measurements, the results are
finite precision real numbers. The scientists then need to do basic
arithmetical operations on those numbers. So if a scientist asked you
for help in so doing, what would you tell him? That's what I'm asking
you to think about.

You *do* know that there are mathematicians interested in doing just
what you're after? Some of them do so by looking at fuzzy real
numbers.

The difference is that they take real numbers as a foundation on which
to build their fuzzy versions. They are interested in mathematics
which is useful rather than philosophical motivations like "Can I
explain it to a computer?" As a consequence, they build on what's
available rather than trying to erase it and start over.

I wonder who's more practically minded?

(Note: I don't know much about fuzzy reals or other ways of
introducing precision into mathematics, so I'm *not* claiming that
this or that approach is successful!)

--
Jesse F. Hughes
"[Lancelot] sighed, defeated. 'It is as practical to hurry an acorn
toward treeness as to urge a damsel when her mind is set.'"
-- John Steinbeck, /The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights/
.

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