Re: [math-fun] How we "do mathematics"

David Gale wrote:

I'M AFRAID I didn't express myself clearly.I wasn't asking for a solution but rather about the mechanics of finding it. Did either of you use pen or pencil or paper at any point? I had to draw two pictures before I could see what the equations had to be. Maybe you were able to do all these things in your head in which case my speculations are off base.

I thought Dan *was* describing the steps he went through to solve the problem on paper. I did it in my head, but I'm quite certain that if I'd happened to have a pencil in my hand then I'd have written down precisely the formulae I gave. -- g