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Re: apples and oranges



Hi Jack,
You're absolutely (abs) correct: I cannot define abs(Q) = - 1 without
abandoning your customary definition of "absolute value". I can live
with that! (I might even find a use for it - but no matter.)
The customary definition of "abs" was much simpler before complex
numbers; the concept was re-defined at this point and the property of
positivity was retained as a free choice.

Irrationals require abandoning what most people took (and still take) as
the customary definition of multiplication (iterative addition). If you
propose something new, you might have to break (or discard or re-make)
something old! (Otherwise it probably isn't anything significantly new.)

These are the free choices of my mathematical morality; you have no
complaint so long as I don't impose my mathematics/morality on you :)

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
-----Original Message-----
From: JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB
ARGONNE, IL 60439 <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Cc: JLU@hep.anl.gov <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
Date: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: apples and oranges


Hi Bob-
"Absolute
vaulue" is customarily <defined> to have the positivity property - it is
the positive number that defines the <size> of the complex (or other)
quantity to which it is applied.
Regards,
Jack