From jcowan@reutershealth.com Fri Nov 08 14:36:37 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojban-out@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_2_3_0); 8 Nov 2002 22:36:37 -0000 Received: (qmail 60105 invoked from network); 8 Nov 2002 22:36:35 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Nov 2002 22:36:35 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO digitalkingdom.org) (204.152.186.175) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Nov 2002 22:36:33 -0000 Received: from lojban-out by digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.05) id 18AHjt-00064t-00 for lojban@yahoogroups.com; Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:36:33 -0800 Received: from digitalkingdom.org ([204.152.186.175] helo=chain) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.05) id 18AHjQ-00064Z-00; Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:36:04 -0800 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:36:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from [65.246.141.151] (helo=mail2.reutershealth.com) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.05) id 18AHjG-000648-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Fri, 08 Nov 2002 14:35:59 -0800 Received: from skunk.reutershealth.com (IDENT:cowan@[10.65.117.21]) by mail2.reutershealth.com (Pro-8.9.3/Pro-8.9.3) with SMTP id RAA07521; Fri, 8 Nov 2002 17:47:24 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <200211082247.RAA07521@mail2.reutershealth.com> Received: by skunk.reutershealth.com (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Fri, 8 Nov 2002 17:33:23 -0500 Subject: [lojban] Re: partial recantation in favour of solomonics To: xod@thestonecutters.net Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 17:33:23 -0500 (EST) Cc: lojban-list@lojban.org In-Reply-To: <20021108154944.I36803-100000@granite.thestonecutters.net> from "Invent Yourself" at Nov 08, 2002 04:01:25 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL6] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-archive-position: 2554 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: jcowan@reutershealth.com Precedence: bulk X-list: lojban-list From: John Cowan Reply-To: jcowan@reutershealth.com X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=8122456 X-Yahoo-Profile: john_w_cowan Invent Yourself scripsit: > > On Fri, 8 Nov 2002, And Rosta wrote: > > > But I think we also would like to be able to say > > truthfully that "50% of unicorns are male". I think that in the Real World, where there are no unicorns, this statement can't be sustained. Simply put, the number of unicorns is zero and the number of male unicorns is zero, so the fraction of male unicorns is 0/0, which is an indeterminate value. (Anything times zero is zero, so reversing the operation, dividing a zero product by its zero multiplier, gives us a multiplier which can be anything.) We must move into a world in which there are unicorns in order to get the effect you want. BTW, in the U.S. at least, males constitute only 48.9% of the human population. That's a deficiency of about three million. > And you should probably > read and meditate on what I closed message 17044 with, which shows why > "50% of unicorns are male" is always a valid statement. If I say that two male unicorns exist on average for every female, how would you in principle refute me? -- A mosquito cried out in his pain, John Cowan "A chemist has poisoned my brain!" http://www.ccil.org/~cowan The cause of his sorrow http://www.reutershealth.com Was para-dichloro- jcowan@reutershealth.com Diphenyltrichloroethane. (aka DDT)