Re: Off-Topic for some out-of-date Marilyn

[David Dockstader <DRDOCK00@UKCC.UKY.EDU>]

It took a long time for 0 to be accepted by mathematicians, and the rest of
the world is still struggling to accept it.  There is the same problem with
infinity and it is often not clear to me why something that looks all the
world like infinity to me has to be "undefined".


On Mon, 06 Oct 1997 03:45:10 EDT Thomas L Wayburn said:
> Marilyn:  Here's a good math puzzle for you:  Say that a 30-foot cable is
> suspended between the tops of two 20-foot poles on level ground.  The
> lowest point of the cable is 5 feet above the ground.  What is the
> distance the two Poles?
>
>
> This is easy for PHYS-Lers, so I'll skip to Marilyn's answer.
>
> Marilyn's answer:  "There is no distance between the poles at all."
> Marilyn goes on to make this sound more sensible.
>
> What I object to is calling a baseball score of zero to zero "no score".
> Here Marilyn refers to a distance of zero inches, feet, meters, or
> furlongs as "no distance".   A distance of zero is a distance in good
> standing as I see it.
>
> I hope this doesn't annoy professional physicists.
>
> Regards / Tom