andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2017-08-22 12:00 pm
andrewducker) wrote2017-08-22 12:00 pm
Entry tags:
- brain,
- browser,
- catholicism,
- children,
- conservatives,
- facts,
- flags,
- gambling,
- gender,
- hallucinations,
- harrassment,
- healthcare,
- hearing,
- history,
- javascript,
- legalisation,
- lgbt,
- libdem,
- links,
- marijuana,
- marketing,
- mathematics,
- nhs,
- ohforfuckssake,
- parenting,
- perception,
- programming,
- psychology,
- racism,
- scotland,
- tax,
- technology,
- toys,
- transgender,
- twitter,
- uk,
- usa,
- war
Interesting Links for 22-08-2017
- People who 'hear voices' can also detect hidden speech in unusual sounds
- (tags: hearing brain psychology hallucinations )
- Trans men show unusual connectivity patterns in brain networks involved in self perception
- (tags: perception psychology transgender lgbt )
- How JavaScript works
- (tags: javascript browser technology programming )
- Hunt vs. Hawking: who’s right about the NHS?
- (tags: nhs facts uk healthcare )
- Recognizing when two arithmetic expressions are essentially the same
- (tags: mathematics programming )
- The government position on betting machines is evil *and* stupid
- (tags: OhForFucksSake gambling UK tax Conservatives )
- Minnesota has a Confederate symbol — and it is going to keep it
- (tags: USA history war flags )
- Tory councillors suspension lifted over offensive tweets about Catholics and black people.
- (tags: Conservatives racism catholicism )
- Why I Don't Like Being Called A 'Gender Neutral Parent'
- (tags: gender children marketing parenting toys )
- Wings Over Scotland blogger arrested over alleged harassment
- (tags: scotland harrassment twitter )
- Lib Dems under Vince Cable still want to legalise cannabis
- (tags: marijuana legalisation uk libdem )
no subject
Remember that he's playing this game with one of his children, so he's intentionally trying to see things from the point of view of someone less mathematically sophisticated than you (or me, or himself).
The 'disguise' he mentions is that subtraction looks like a separate mathematical operation, precisely because we use the shorthand a−b rather than writing a+(−b) every time. So, to somebody who's still learning (or has only recently learned) the notation and the permitted transformations of expressions, there appears to be an extra operation and a whole extra set of laws to learn, until you reach the level of both practice and understanding that lets you effortlessly see through that notational convention of 'addition and subtraction operators' to the underlying reality of 'actually it's all just addition and negation'.