>> On 2002-12-02 21:40:47, Paul Makepeace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> I should point out I was shooting for "first post" to get it in > before Shevek, Tony, Chris et al rather than any real attempt at > technical accuracy :-) :-) Why, I'm honoured to be included with such eminent mathematicians[1]. I'm only a lowly CS undergrad. :-) > P (I think it's right though...) Me too. Another common feature of these sorts of puzzles is tricking you with a division error or something. This one took me longer than it should have done: (with lame markup from the original left intact) == assume two numbers a & b, where a = b. step 1: a = b step 2: a2 = ab [ after you multiply both sides by a ] step 3: a2 - b2 = ab - b2 [ subtract b2 from both sides ] step 4: (a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b) [ factor both sides ] step 5: (a + b) = 1b [ divide both sides by (a - b) ] step 6: 2b = 1b [ since a = b, (a + b) = 2b ] step 7: 2 = 1 [ after you divide both sides by b ] == - Chris. [1]: You were talking about me rather than another Chris, right? :-) -- $a="printf.net"; Chris Ball | chris@void.$a | www.$a | finger: chris@$a | "We just typed make" -- Stephen Lambrigh, Director of Server Product | Marketing at Informix, about porting Informix to Linux.
