mathnerd314 comments on 17 Rules to Make a Definition that Avoids the 37 Ways of Words Being Wrong - Less Wrong

15 Post author: mathnerd314 22 February 2014 05:16AM

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Comment author: mathnerd314 22 February 2014 03:45:02PM *  5 points [-]

A prime number n is a number whose only factors are multiplicative units and n*a multiplicative unit (and these two sets are distinct). Typical examples include 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11. Less-typical examples include -2 and 1+i; they are often excluded from consideration in mathematics.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 24 February 2014 08:31:23AM 1 point [-]

"whose only factors" -- that's where you are hiding the negation

("only" = "there is no other")

Comment author: mathnerd314 24 February 2014 02:42:40PM *  2 points [-]

Well, there's a tricky thing in mathematics called "the law of excluded middle". Using the law, you can e.g. prove that a implies b is logically equivalent to (not a) or b. It also lets you do existence proofs by proving it isn't possible for there to be no examples. So in classical logic every statement is confused with its double negation.

I generally try to use intuitionistic logic though, where a->b is not logically equivalent to anything else and double negations have to be written out. You do have , but that only goes one direction and results in a weaker statement. If you look at my other reply with an intuitionistic frame of mind, then you'll see that the "only" is an implication, with no negation in sight.

Comment author: Vej_Kse 24 February 2014 02:23:35PM *  0 points [-]

Not necessarily: see mathnerd314's comment below (or above). In fact, in “there is no other”, there is a double negation (the second being in “other”, which hides “not equal to”), which can be eliminated.

Comment author: [deleted] 22 February 2014 08:48:36PM 0 points [-]

Well done (although it is still a useful binary category; numbers are either prime or composite, semiprimes be damned).

Comment author: mathnerd314 22 February 2014 09:28:18PM 4 points [-]

Indeed, but one of Eliezer's points was that mathematical objects, e.g. the set of prime numbers, don't need labels. I can write without giving it a name at all, or just call it P.