# What is 2 + 2?



## Smitty (Sep 30, 2005)

Some of the World's great minds assembled to answer the question: "What is 2 + 2?"

The Engineer pulled out his creaky slide rule, worked it for a moment, then announced: "3.99"

The Physicist consulted his technical references, set up the problem on his computer, and declared: "It lies somewhere between 3.98 and 4.02."

The Mathematician cogitated, oblivious to everything, then shouted: "I don't know what the answer is, but I can tell you, an answer exists."

The Philosopher asked: "What do you mean by 2 + 2?"

The Logician requested that the question be defined more precisely.

Last came the Accountant, who closed all the doors and windows, looked around, then asked in a whisper: "What do you want it to be?"

Smitty


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## Joe4 (Sep 30, 2005)

Two more:

When asked what "pi" is, here is what the following say:

Mathematician: "It is the cirumference of a circle divided by its diameter."

Scientist: "3.14285714...."

Engineer: "Approximately 3"

Manager: "Greater than 3, so we better make it 4, just to be safe."

Salesman: "A little over 3, but I can get it for you for just 2.5!"

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An engineer, a weatherman, and a statistician go duck hunting.  

As the first duck flys by, the engineer jumps up, tries to determine the velocity of the duck and speed of the bullet and fires, but misses two feet in front of the duck.

The weatherman quickly jumps up, make a few minor adjustments for wind speed, and shoots at the same duck, but misses two feet behind the duck.

The statistician pops up and shouts "Got 'im!"


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## TrippyTom (Sep 30, 2005)

Isn't it 3.1415926535897932384626433832795... though?


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## Joe4 (Sep 30, 2005)

> Isn't it 3.1415926535897932384626433832795... though?


Sorry, didn't realize we had a scientist on board!


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## TrippyTom (Sep 30, 2005)

Actually, I only remember 3.1415926 ... anything after that gets fuzzy.  I have no idea why I even remember this number because I'm a presentation designer, not a scientist.


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## erik.van.geit (Sep 30, 2005)

Very nice JOKES !!!

when I was 13 I learned pi by heart till about 50 numbers to perform some "memory" tricks
see where my head will bang
3.1415926 53589 79323 84626 433832 7950288 4197169 399375
not sure about the last part and the sequence of the groups

the trick was as follows
ask a lot of people to give a number between 0 and 9
write down correctly the first 5, 6 or 7 numbers
then write your memory
to end write down again some correct numbers
just now tell them (not before you start) that you are going to learn all those numbers by heart in a few seconds    

greetings,
Erik


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## PaddyD (Sep 30, 2005)

2 + 2 = 5, for large values of 2.


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## Andrew Fergus (Oct 3, 2005)

Or 2+2 = 10 (in base 4)

Speaking of which, there are 10 types of people in this world : those who know binary and those who don't.


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## al_b_cnu (Oct 3, 2005)

andrew93 said:
			
		

> Or 2+2 = 10 (in base 4)
> 
> Speaking of which, there are 10 types of people in this world : those who know binary and those who don't.



HEY! - That's MY line !

But according to Ken Walker (a fellow board member)


> Did you know that there are actually 11 different kinds of people. Those that know binary, those that don't, and those that try to say this joke out loud!


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## milesUK (Oct 3, 2005)

There are 3 types of people in the world; Those that can count and those that can't.

PS I use 22/7 for PI 'cos I can remeber it!


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## erik.van.geit (Oct 3, 2005)

> PS I use 22/7 for PI 'cos I can remeber it!


Neil Armstrong and his astronaut-friends would remember it when the engineers would have used 22/7 to launch the Apollo
can you see them on orbit between Venus and Mercurius


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## Zack Barresse (Oct 3, 2005)

Amazing thing, math is.  Even more amazing is how the logical system we know as the decimal system was created, by an arabic fellow.  An interesting read if you look it up.


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## erik.van.geit (Oct 3, 2005)

one fellow ?  
(you must be joking)

to my sense it's something which grows step by step during some centuries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Arabic_numerals.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Indian_numerals.html


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## PaddyD (Oct 3, 2005)

"...by an arabic fellow"

Details notwithstanding, I think Zack might also be think of algebra:  

http://www.algebra.com/algebra/about/history/Algebra.wikipedia#History


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## Tazguy37 (Oct 3, 2005)

I'm surprised that not one person gave any of the series expansions. 

   8
4 S   (-1)^n/(2*n+1)
  i=0



EDIT:  Well shoot!  That's supposed to say:  4 times the summation from 0 to infinity, of (-1)^n/(2*n+1).  Stupid php...*grumble*

Oh well...even if you didn't want to know, there it is.  (Note that this is *exactly* equal to pi   )


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## Andrew Fergus (Oct 4, 2005)

al_b_cnu said:
			
		

> andrew93 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Hehe

Yeah - I knew I had seen it somewhere.  It made me laugh when I first saw it.

Actually, 2 + 2 can equal 10, 11, 100 or even 1111.

A


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## Zack Barresse (Oct 4, 2005)

Not one fellow there, sir Erik.  There was a man who pioneered it (algebra, yes) though.


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## wobble12 (Oct 4, 2005)

PaddyD said:
			
		

> "...by an arabic fellow"
> 
> Details notwithstanding, I think Zack might also be think of algebra:
> 
> http://www.algebra.com/algebra/about/history/Algebra.wikipedia#History



The ten numbers thing was of course an Indian invention, which the Arabics took and developed further.

There was a terrific documentary by Terry Jones about numbers (primarily 1 and 0) giving the history of the numbering system we know today:
http://sportalert.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4272538.stm

It showed the problems of the Roman numeral system, and wher the concept of zero came from.


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## erik.van.geit (Oct 4, 2005)

> The ten numbers thing was of course an Indian invention, which the Arabics took and developed further.


there is a simple fact
(almost) everybody on earth received a number of fingers equal to
 10


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## al_b_cnu (Oct 4, 2005)

erik.van.geit said:
			
		

> > The ten numbers thing was of course an Indian invention, which the Arabics took and developed further.
> 
> 
> there is a simple fact
> ...



10 _digits_ if you want to be pedantic ;¬)


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## Smitty (Oct 4, 2005)

> there is a simple fact
> (almost) everybody on earth received a number of fingers equal to
> 10


Ahhh, but what about the Indian child recently born with 26 fingers & toes?  He could reinvent the whole system...

Smitty


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## just_jon (Oct 4, 2005)

?


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## Greg Truby (Oct 4, 2005)

andrew93 said:
			
		

> ...Actually, 2 + 2 can equal 10, 11, 100 or even 1111.  -A



OK, Andrew, show me.  :wink:  I get 10 (base 4) and 11 (base 3).  But 100 or 1111?  100 would be binary but "2+2" implies that the numeric "2" is valid; so binary is out.  And 1111?  That one really intrigued me...


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## Oaktree (Oct 4, 2005)

pennysaver said:
			
		

> > there is a simple fact
> > (almost) everybody on earth received a number of fingers equal to
> > 10
> 
> ...



To be fair, Smitty, it was *only* 25.  That 26th would have just been too many.    

http://www.nbc5.com/irresistible/5040254/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=1260382&dppid=65195


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## Smitty (Oct 4, 2005)

Guess I was wrong about the "recently born" part.

That's what I get for listening to NCR. 

Smitty


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## Norie (Oct 4, 2005)

From the Guinness site.

```
At an inquest held on a baby boy at Shoreditch in the East End of London, UK, on September 16, 1921, it was reported that he had 14 fingers and 15 toes.
```


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## whiteghost (Oct 4, 2005)

what if you have a baby with two heads and niether can agree what 2+2 = ?


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## tactps (Oct 5, 2005)

On a completely unrealted topic, I just hat to share this (and yes it is a true story - it did not happen to a "friend").

A girl at work asked for help with the fax machine, so I went to it with her and asked her to show me what she was doing.

She put in the paper to be faxed, dialled the number and pressed the "send" button. Through it went.

I said "So what's the problem?"

She held up the papaer and said "But it's still here!"


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## Andrew Fergus (Oct 5, 2005)

Greg Truby said:
			
		

> OK, Andrew, show me.  :wink:  I get 10 (base 4) and 11 (base 3).  But 100 or 1111?  100 would be binary but "2+2" implies that the numeric "2" is valid; so binary is out.  And 1111?  That one really intrigued me...



For the answer of 100, the question is in decimal but the answer is in base 2 (cheating I know  )

As for the 1111 - that's using base 1 for the answer.  "Base 1?" I hear you ask.  That's a recent invention of mine - each position of n has the value 1^n (which equals 1).  Quite nifty but it can only be used for small numbers.  

Cheers, Andrew


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## Felix Atagong (Oct 6, 2005)

tactps said:
			
		

> A girl at work asked for help with the fax machine, so I went to it with her and asked her to show me what she was doing.
> She put in the paper to be faxed, dialled the number and pressed the "send" button. Through it went.
> I said "So what's the problem?"
> She held up the paper and said "But it's still here!"



Even a blonde should know that a fax machine first takes a photocopy and sends that over to the other machine!  

And about the 2+2 thing, my Italian boss would say:
I'll makey a gooda price for you.
I canna sella this 2 + 2 for a
fiver.
I'ma loosing the money on that, but you ara my frienda...


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## Greg Truby (Oct 6, 2005)

andrew93 said:
			
		

> As for the 1111 - that's using base 1 for the answer...That's a recent invention of mine...



Hiya Andrew, I ain't 100% sure this ol' cowpoke's a gonna buy that "recent invention" bit.  I reckon a feller could argue that "Base 1" is more or less Roman numerals without the V, X, L, C, D & M... :wink: <hr>

tactps -- "...but it's still here!?"


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## brian.wethington (Aug 6, 2007)

If you were to ask me about what 2+2 equals (mathematician)  I automatically ask what is your definition of plus.  There is the ordinary definition... or has it been defined as something else?  P.S. I love how accountants create their own definition of plus so many times in one year!


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## Joe4 (Aug 6, 2007)

> If you were to ask me about what 2+2 equals (mathematician) I automatically ask what is your definition of plus.


You can relax now, Mr. Clinton.  The trial is over!


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## IOANNIS (Aug 10, 2007)

2+1=WATER

Incomplete question => incomplete or unwanted answer

Define [2]. [+], [1] if you want a complete answer


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