shalamayne: (12)
Anduin Wrynn ([personal profile] shalamayne) wrote in [community profile] thefarshore2018-09-13 06:05 pm

text

From: Varian
Date: January 18th

At what point does math become literature? The last I looked, math didn't include letters that went alongside or with the numbers.
reformedsinner: (apologies)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2018-09-13 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, you're encountering algebra?

What are you trying to study?
reformedsinner: (ha ha ha!)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2018-09-16 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha ha, I see! In fact, I teach math, so if you're in need of someone to walk you through the problem I'll be happy to do so.

Those letters are simply a way to represent a value that's not known. For instance, if I said 2 + x = 4, and asked you to tell me what the value of X was, can you see how to determine it?
reformedsinner: (as a matter of fact!)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2018-09-18 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Because once you use a letter, it's possible to represent a range of numbers or a relationship between two different numbers.

When 2 + x = 4, x is 2. But if I were to say, for example, 2 + x = y, I have made a statement that y is always two greater than x, and now we can determine the value of x no matter what y turns out to be.
reformedsinner: (as a matter of fact!)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2018-09-23 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
As a matter of fact, if I were calculating the placement of a trebuchet and the angle and force of its throw in order to do the most damage, this is exactly the sort of math that I would want to employ.
reformedsinner: (apologies)

[personal profile] reformedsinner 2018-09-27 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Only if you have enough ammunition to waste on a statistical sample!

Ha ha, it's true that you don't generally have to worry about advanced mathematics outside artillery, however.