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Time travel meme!
Jun. 26th, 2006 06:13 pmIf you could go back in time and see any extinct animal, what would it be?
The giant ground sloth! Those things are incredible! I wish they were still around, domesticated, and rideable.
If you could go back in time and talk with any historical person, who would it be, and what about?
Galileo, about mathematics--infinite set theory. He came so close to discovering something that otherwise wasn't worked out for another 250 years, but didn't quite make it. Specifically, he realized that there are precisely as many square numbers as there are whole numbers, even though not all whole numbers are square numbers. Presumably he also extended this to the fact that there are equally many whole numbers, even numbers, odd numbers, and integers. But as far as I can tell, he thought that ALL infinities were equal. I'd love to have a conversation with him about the cardinality of the rational numbers (which IS the same as the previous) and the real numbers (which isn't!). Other intriguing topics of discussion could of course be astronomy, pendulums, and conflict between science, politics, and church dogma.
The giant ground sloth! Those things are incredible! I wish they were still around, domesticated, and rideable.
If you could go back in time and talk with any historical person, who would it be, and what about?
Galileo, about mathematics--infinite set theory. He came so close to discovering something that otherwise wasn't worked out for another 250 years, but didn't quite make it. Specifically, he realized that there are precisely as many square numbers as there are whole numbers, even though not all whole numbers are square numbers. Presumably he also extended this to the fact that there are equally many whole numbers, even numbers, odd numbers, and integers. But as far as I can tell, he thought that ALL infinities were equal. I'd love to have a conversation with him about the cardinality of the rational numbers (which IS the same as the previous) and the real numbers (which isn't!). Other intriguing topics of discussion could of course be astronomy, pendulums, and conflict between science, politics, and church dogma.
