ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP (09/10/83)
Ha ha, that was SUCH an old joke. Of course it's wrong! How can you cancel (c-2) both sides when c = 2 ? God, it's really sad to think that some college people can be impressed by such simple thing. Hao-Nhien Vu (pur-ee!norris [don't believe the heading] )
ramona@nsc.uucp (Ramona Wu) (09/10/83)
<< FLAME ON >> i thought that division by zero to get 2=1 tricks stopped in the third grade! << FLAME OFF >> chongo /\../\
chongo@nsc.uucp (Curt Noll) (09/10/83)
oops, the message from Romona was done from the wrong terminal, sorry! chongo /\../\
shauns@tekcad.UUCP (09/10/83)
#R:ihuxe:-33200:tekcad:10500001:000:987
tekcad!shauns Sep 9 22:00:00 1983
OH YEAH, sure....
1)start with a fundamental relationship(1=1) 1 = 1
2)add "c" to both sides c + 1 = c + 1
3)assign value 2 to "c" and substitute on right side c + 1 = 3
4)multiply both sides by (a-b)
"a" and "b" are the two (c+1)(a-b) = 3(a-b)
numbers to be proven equal
5)multiply out terms ac + a - bc - b = 3a - 3b
6)place "a" terms on left
place "b" terms on right ac - 2a = bc - 2b
7)factor a(c-2) = b(c-2)
8)cancel common factors a = b
Wrong! cancelling common factors means that one DIVIDES by the common factor.
Since c has been defined as 2, the denominator is zero, and division by zero
is, of course, undefined, so we really know nothing about a and b.
It's a cute trick, though... can suck somebody right in with that innocent
looking step (3).robert@arizona.UUCP (09/15/83)
Why don't we have a newsgroup *net.math.highschool* to which people can confine these discussions?