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Re: [Phys-L] just for fun



On 12/19/2013 4:28 PM, Ken Caviness wrote:
Several people have helpfully pointed out that I misread the problem, as can readily be seen by my second line. Mea culpa!

Yes, upon careful consideration, I agree that 25/28 is NOT 1 - 2/28. Ha ha! I guess this is why my wife insists on balancing our checkbook.

But ... Question for Brian Whatcott: Is your comment intended to indicate some further problem with what I wrote? The comment "it does not follow" seems to point to this part of it:

Since it's obvious that
1 = 1
and 2/28 < 2/17,
--------------------
It follows that
1 - 2/28 > 1 - 2/17

Ken, I'm guessing you may not have followed this thread carefully from the first instantiation, which followed just the solution path you described.
The second instance placed the two values closer and , and made them less easy to size by inspection or intuition, so that the 3/28 versus 2/17 step needed a little more thought.

Sincerely

Brian Whatcott Altus OK