RE: [math-fun] Re: More innumeracy in high places
From a future news story:
Some very smart researchers today announced an interesting result in mathematics. Reporters at the press conference took a qualifying exam to determine which of them would be admitted to the closed door session. The mathematicians revealed that the result involved at least one prime number. All but one of the few reporters who qualified to hear the result balked at the administration of a second qualifying exam, several suggesting that the mathematicians suffered from an obscure topological condition. This reporter passed both the second and third exams, and learned the exact nature of the result. It would be a disservice to the general public and to the mathematicians to refer to the information in any further detail, however, because the former only would be misled into life-threatening errors and the latter need to cling to a belief that nobody understands them. Hilarie
participants (1)
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The Purple Streak, Hilarie Orman