What is 2 + 2?

[erik.van.geit]

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

 

[Zack Barresse]

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.

 

[erik.van.geit]

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

 

[PaddyD]

"...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

 

[Tazguy37]

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 )

 

[Andrew Fergus]

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!

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

 

[Zack Barresse]

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

 

[wobble12]

"...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.

 

[erik.van.geit]

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

 

[al_b_cnu]

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

10 digits if you want to be pedantic ;¬)