this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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They keep digging that hole deeper (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Imaginary numbers were originally no more than an ephemeral reasoning tool, and were only reluctantly accepted as entities in their own right because of how damn useful they were.

That, there, is the story of pretty much all maths. There were occasional mentions of zero and debates about whether it's a number or not in old Europe, it only became widely accepted once base 10 became popular. And people still can't agree whether the natural numbers contain it!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Hah. Church tried to ban it because it was "associated with illegal money trading", I remember that. What is it about maths that makes non-mathematicians think themselves qualified to judge matters they don't understand?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They did five minutes of research on ~~the internet~~ a stone tablet so their opinion is just as valid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I only read one book, and it's a Good Book, don't you know!