MouseFaninQueue
The CAMERAMAN can 'cause he mixes it with love and
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2006
- Messages
- 2,904
I found this funny.
On the game site I usually go to (boardgamegeek.com) there is a forum called "chit chat". In that forum someone posted this pic as a joke about why Ladies should not date a geek.
Then in true geakiness, that thread brokedown into a discussion on number theory with posts such as:
and
and the best one:
And of course you have to have the proof:
Ok that made me laugh today. Go back to your usual stuff...
On the game site I usually go to (boardgamegeek.com) there is a forum called "chit chat". In that forum someone posted this pic as a joke about why Ladies should not date a geek.

Then in true geakiness, that thread brokedown into a discussion on number theory with posts such as:
When imaginary numbers involved, greater than/less than have no meaning. So "i < 3u" cannot be true or false, no matter what "u" is equal to.
and
What if u=i? Then you could cancel out the u's and make it 1 < 3, which is always true.
So if the statement depends on what u is equal to, does that make her love conditional??
and the best one:
I assume you mean u=i/3, because if u=i then you have i < 3i, which you cannot say if it is true or false.
If u = i/3, then you have "i < i", which I think you still can't say whether it is true or false. This may be a special case, where you can say they are equal and thus neither is less than the other, but I'm not sure - even in that case it may be meaningless to say whether or not one is smaller than the other.
The idea is that in general saying "x < y" indicates an ordering of the values; any set of numbers can be put in a line from the smallest to the largest. In imaginary numbers, that cannot be done, there is no way to take arbitrary sets of imaginary numbers and line them up from smallest to largest. Sure, you can make up your own ordering, but any ordering you invent is meaningless because simple facts like how multiplication changes the comparison break down and won't work any more.
And of course you have to have the proof:
Usually x < x for any x is false... when x is real. It's just strange to think what that meaning even is when you go into complex numbers. And then what do you do about this?
Proof by contradiction.
Assume i=i
i < i is equivalent to i - i < 0.
i - i = 0
Therefore 0 < 0.
Contradiction.
Therefore i !< i (read: i "is not less than" i)
Ok that made me laugh today. Go back to your usual stuff...