{"id":3286,"date":"2012-10-03T09:36:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T08:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=3286"},"modified":"2012-11-15T07:30:31","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T06:30:31","slug":"something-about-certainty-proofs-in-math-inductionabduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2012\/10\/something-about-certainty-proofs-in-math-inductionabduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Something about certainty, proofs in math, induction\/abduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

This conversation followed me posting the post<\/a> just before, and several people bringing up the same proof.<\/p>\n

Aowpwtomsihermng = Afraid of what people will think of me, so i had Emil remove my name-guy<\/p>\n

[09:57:00] Emil – Deleet: http:\/\/mathbin.net\/109013
\n[09:58:50] Aowpwtomsihermng: Your mates know their algebra.
\n[10:00:09] Emil – Deleet: this guy is a mathematician
\n[10:00:27] Emil – Deleet: fysicist ppl have not chimed in yet
\n[10:00:32] Emil – Deleet: they are having classes i think
\n[10:08:18] Aowpwtomsihermng: Have you worked out the inductive proof yet?
\n[10:09:33] Emil – Deleet: no
\n[10:09:40] Emil – Deleet: i dont know how they work in detail
\n[10:09:43] Emil – Deleet: and it takes time
\n[10:09:49] Emil – Deleet: and i already crowdsourced the problem
\n[10:10:00] Emil – Deleet: so… doesnt pay for me to look for it
\n[10:10:19] Aowpwtomsihermng: CBA, right?
\n[10:10:24] Emil – Deleet: i didnt even need any fancy math proof to begin with
\n[10:10:30] Emil – Deleet: since i already proved it to my satisfaction
\n[10:10:54] Aowpwtomsihermng: Induction in the logical rather than mathematical sense…
\n[10:11:00] Emil – Deleet: yes
\n[10:11:17] Aowpwtomsihermng: Not as rigorous, but useful anyway.
\n[10:11:23] Emil – Deleet: or abduction
\n[10:11:46] Emil – Deleet: mathematical certainty is overrated
\n[10:11:48] Emil – Deleet: ;)
\n[10:11:59] Emil – Deleet: just look at economics
\n[10:12:02] Emil – Deleet: :P
\n[10:12:27] Aowpwtomsihermng: You never know, it might have worked for the first twenty numbers then stopped working. Unlikely, but possible.
\n[10:12:48] Aowpwtomsihermng: At least now you know that’s not the case.
\n[10:12:49] Emil – Deleet: astronomically unlikely
\n[10:12:56] Emil – Deleet: and i also tried other random numbers
\n[10:13:02] Emil – Deleet: like 3242
\n[10:13:21] Emil – Deleet: IMO, not much certainty was gained
\n[10:13:50 | Edited 10:14:04] Emil – Deleet: its approximately as likely that we missed an error in the proof as it is that abduction\/induction fails in this case
\n[10:14:26] Aowpwtomsihermng: But once you have two or three proofs, then that likelihood drops dramatically.
\n[10:14:46] Emil – Deleet: perhaps
\n[10:15:00] Aowpwtomsihermng: But I take your point, it’s not a *great* deal of extra certainty.
\n[10:15:15] Emil – Deleet: for practice, its an irrelevant increase
\n[10:15:34] Emil – Deleet: if it comes at a great time cost – not worth it
\n[10:15:41] Emil – Deleet: thats what mathematicians are for ;)
\n[10:15:50] Emil – Deleet: (with the implication that their time isnt worth much! :D)
\n[10:16:55 | Edited 10:17:14] Aowpwtomsihermng: Right, right. We programmers and mathematicians are mere cogs in the machinery of your grand device.
\n[10:17:19] Emil – Deleet: ^^
\n[10:17:36] Emil – Deleet: at least ure part of something great ^^
\n[10:17:37] Emil – Deleet: :P<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This conversation followed me posting the post just before, and several people bringing up the same proof. Aowpwtomsihermng = Afraid of what people will think of me, so i had Emil remove my name-guy [09:57:00] Emil – Deleet: http:\/\/mathbin.net\/109013 [09:58:50] Aowpwtomsihermng: Your mates know their algebra. [10:00:09] Emil – Deleet: this guy is a mathematician […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1766,5],"tags":[1930],"class_list":["post-3286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epistemology","category-math-science","category-dialogues","tag-rationality-philosophy","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3286"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3286\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}