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[Phaëton]

-2 = -2
4 - 6 = 1 - 3
4 - 6 + 9/4 = 1 - 3 + 9/4
(2 - 3/2)² = (1 - 3/2)²
2 - 3/2 = 1 - 3/2
2 = 1

[daviator]

That's an old one...

I think the flaw happens in the fourth line; while squaring both sides of the equation would be fine, the numbers themselves are wrong.  4 - 6 + 9/4 is NOT 2 - 3/2.  It's -2 + 9/4 which is 1/4.  Similarly, 1 - 3 + 9/4 = -2 + 9/4 = 1/4, which is NOT equal to 1 - 3/2 (which would be -1/2.)

Fail.   

Nice try though!

[nutballs]

Correct. The squaring of two different numbers is the flaw. Can't do that
No arbitrary usage of parens around here.

However, 2+2=5
for very large values of 2.

[daviator]

I'm so glad I paid attention in high school algebra class.  Mrs. Sargenti FTW!   

[perkiset]

She failed me nasty. I was too busy chasing skirt.

She's most likely the single most important reason I got into computers ... to see if I could get credit at SOMETHING in the math department since I was failing.

Oh, I guess thanks are actually in order 

[Phaëton]

However, 2+2=5
for very large values of 2.

how so?

[kurdt]

how so?

Floating points I guess? Same reason you don't use float when dealing with financial stuff.

[nutballs]

2.4 + 2.4 = round( 2.8 ) = 5

dont mix maths, it will make you sad.

[daviator]

She failed me nasty. I was too busy chasing skirt.

She's most likely the single most important reason I got into computers ... to see if I could get credit at SOMETHING in the math department since I was failing.

Oh, I guess thanks are actually in order 

This will be completely uninteresting to everyone else here, lol.

But I liked and respected her.  She was the only teacher, I think in my entire school "career", who sent me to detention.  In high school, I ditched classes left and right, and the teachers never cared, because I was smart and I'd catch up with the work and do well on the exams.  Not Mrs. S.  The first (and last) time I ditched her class, she sat me down and told me that every other teacher might be fine with that, but I was NOT going to cut her class.  And then she assigned me to detention for a week.

I was shocked and mad at the time, but I came to like and respect her.  She was a good teacher and I learned a lot.  Ended up taking her for like 3 years of various math classes.  And I did not miss another class of hers, the shame of detention have done its job on me.

Never knew you were failing anything, Perks.  You were smart and I always figured your grades were okay.  Now I know why you suddenly started hanging out in the computer lab!  ha ha

Good times, those.

[nutballs]

hmmm. i think i had 1 teacher in all of school who did NOT send me to detention...

[perkiset]

Never knew you were failing anything, Perks.  You were smart and I always figured your grades were okay.  Now I know why you suddenly started hanging out in the computer lab!  ha ha

Good times, those.

Rough times for me, high school. Every concrete experiential class i had i was stellar in ... Logical abstract was just a bitch. I beleve the name of the computer teacher that scored the school that first Apple ][ was Bishop ... He understood me and was the reason i made it. I wanted to make the computer do things ... He never gave me the answer, only challenged me with puzzles to get in and figure it out. Sargenti,  I recall, simply answered me "because that's the way you do it" when I asked "why?" ... Nothing seems to stick for me if I don't get a working context around it. Simple repetitive rote exercises do nothing for me at all.

Oh yeah ... There was also this kid at school that, no matter what i did, always seemed to be one step ahead of me on the computer. Pissed me off, but set the pace. I always find myself thankful for his existence in my life

Have a great evening D.

[daviator]

I beleve the name of the computer teacher that scored the school that first Apple ][ was Bishop ...

I suspect you are thinking of Mr. Jacob, though maybe there's a Bishop I don't remember.  He was a great guy, quit teaching after our first or second year there to take a tech industry job, as I recall.  He gave me a ride home from school once, that's where I learned that it was possible to steer using one's knee to hold the wheel, a technique I have been known to use on occasion.  ;-)

[jammaster82]

i cant do algebra to save my life...not on the latest government issue
super happy fun time amp speed, not on the pritikin diet, not out in the hall by myself
with blinders on...  because even if i learn the context
of how to use it i cant ever figure out why i would need to know it.

I tried to take the GED for fun a few years back and there's some
math on there i am betting 90 percent of the 'functioning' population
couldn't even begin to understand. And really besides counting the
money in their pockets, most of the idiocracy doesnt even need to know
math.  And up till this internet thing it was fairly easy for a non-reader
to get around in this world.  Hell if you know ebonics you dont even
have to be able to speak and hear proper english. know what im' say?

thats what im talking about.

I would have failed algebra miserably except that I went to a private
school where it was real super easy to cheat... and probably bad
business to fail 'tards with rich parents.

My dog, however can calculate instantly the exact angle to lay at
to take up the majority of any available nearby comfortable space instantly.

..

[perkiset]

I suspect you are thinking of Mr. Jacob, though maybe there's a Bishop I don't remember.

That's him. See? No memory either.