/lit/ - Literature

1-1=??????

>>13576561
Why would someone ever take 1 from 1?

>>13576587
You have one bicycle.

I steal your bicycle.

Now you have zero bicycles.

>>13576597
But there is still a bicycle. You have it, but that does not mean I have 0 bicycles or that there are 0 bicycles in the exchange. It is mine de jure, so I still have 1 bicycle, just no currently in my possession.

>>13576604
In my example math is being used to tally a figure, specifically the number of bicycles you have. This is utilitarian and how most people use math. For everyday tasks.

You're abusing math for some anegation of property rights argument you don't even believe. I call this thread bait.

>>13576618
But I still have the bicycle. The position of it makes no difference. Quit trying to bend math to your own position. I’m not OP by the way.

>>13576618
Based. This is all true. Math is meaningless in itself, but only valuable in its utility.

>>13576618
You speaketh bullshit

>>13576559
>t. incel
and no the number of sexual partners you've had won't change

>>13576632
>But I still have the bicycle.
No, this statement is false. You don't have the bicycle. I do. Because I took it from you. I have one bicycle. You have zero bicycles. Go back to 1st grade, anon.

>>13576647
fuck the bike
attack his inceldom see >>13576643

>>13576650
you are thread-disrupting noise. go away.

>>13576652
t. zero brain

>>13576559
I'll bite: 10 x 10 = 100
How do we manage the decade scale without a placeholder to keep track?

>>13576675
11111 11111

>>13576675
>decade scale
decimals?

>Math is bullshit if you change some of its assumptions even slightly.
Do you guys agree how do you see numbers as a philosophical entity: real, descriptions of real thing or compleat bs.

>>13576675
Ops questions is more about the nature of zero and how nothing cant exist so 0 can't be real imo.
Not about the continuation of numbers, you can just put X there or any other sombol.

>>13576682
>>13576687
>compleat
>sombol
>Ops
>questions is
Grade: 0

>you can just put X there
wow how arbitrary. would Y work too? lol
Grade: 0

see me after class

>confusing 0 with O
Bruh

>>13576708
Numbers are arbitrary progression of symbols. Yes Y woude work as long as we agree to it. See how the 12 base system is.

>>13576687
>you can just put X there or any other sombol
I thought better than I typed. At least I typed "placeholder" instead of "zero" but I meant to disallow the permutation that the zero was important in some other essence other than its function as a means of keeping track of the decade scale. My failure in this is obvious.

>>13576720
lel

>>13576643
and you've probably never even dilated.

>>13576559
Numbers don't "exist". They're human ideas for understanding and describing the world. Zero is useful as the additive identity.

>>13576720
>Y woude work as long as we agree to it
At this point, "Y" has assumed the function of "0". What do you posit that this proves or improves?
>See how the 12 base system is
Duodecimal is a PITA for day to day mathematical needs beyond 144.

>>13576742
exactly because I have 0 need to
you on the other hand...

>>1357675
I did not understand the comment properly I guess

>>13576749
>Numbers don't "exist"
I automatically read opie's statement as referencing the numeral "0". Numerals do exist. The permutations are allowed for both assumptions in opie's opening.

>>13576763
Just getting rid of the numeral would merely make things awkward to write. At which point we'd immediately re-invent it.

>>13576749
this

0 is a relatively modern invention. Many important real discoveries within mathematics could be explored without it.

The Greeks, for one, didn't have a word for zero. It was meaningless to them. :3

>>13576604
ok, what if the bicycle goes in a black hole's event horizon and is obliterated?