a) If an initial doesn't stand for anything else, it at least stands for itself. b) The middle initial "8." may not be an intial, just a decimal point. In Europe, she would use "8," and in scientific work "8.0x10^0". ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gareth McCaughan" <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> To: <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: <dasimov@earthlink.net>; "Thomas Colthurst" <thomasc@bbn.com> Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 2:18 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Re: Lotto & fortune cookies, from today's NYT
On Friday 13 May 2005 12:17, Thomas Colthurst wrote:
Dan Asmiov asks:
So what do you call an "initial" that doesn't stand for anything?
A terminal initial?
That can't be right in this case. According to the category theorists, any object that is both initial and terminal is a zero, but this one was an 8.
-- g
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun