Re: 2.0.30 - its all a numbers game, I tell ya!

Donald R Willhoit (willhoit+@andrew.cmu.edu)
Tue, 11 Mar 1997 12:25:44 -0500 (EST)


Excerpts from internet.computing.linux-kernel: 11-Mar-97 Re: 2.0.30 -
its all a numb.. by H. Peter Anvin@transmeta
> Proof by obfuscation doesn't count. You can "prove" that 0/0 = a for
> any finite number a by observing that:
>
> a x
> lim --- = a
> x -> 0 x
>
> Q.E.D.
>
> (a doesn't even have to be real for the proof to hold!)
>
> -hpa
ON THE CONTRARY NOT QED. this may not be obfuscation itself but it
relies on the obfuscation of the definition of a limit.

Okay my apologizes to continue this TERRIBLY OFF TOPIC thread but
something has to be set straight here. The above is a limit - it
doesn't prove that 0/0=a. In a slightly better form, since people are
always abusing things likes limits and infiinites heres the definition.:

DEFINITION
Let f be a function defined on some open interval that contains a number
a, except possibly a itself. Then we say that the limit of f(x) as x
approaches a is L, and we write
lim f(x) = L
x->a
if for every number E > 0 there is a corresponding number d >0 such that
|f(x) - L| < E whenever 0 < |x-a| < d

>From this you should see that your "proof" fails.

D. Ryan Willhoit