[thechat] Math was Mythology was comics

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at COMPAQ.com
Thu May 24 08:00:18 CDT 2001


Actually ... (if you're wierd enough to get into it - and have the math
background) ... Godel's proof is pretty cool.

http://www.ltn.lv/~podnieks/index.html

It's been quite a while since I've been through it ... {I'm pretty sure I
have a copy of his original paper at home.} ... but I kind of remember it as
a set-theoretic application of the Cantor diagonal argument. (He says
offhandedly in the odd chance that that might mean something to anyone
here!)

I think the closest I've seen to an "unprovable assertion in math" is the
speculation on whether there is an infinity between aleph-not (the countably
infinite) and 'c' (the continuum or uncountably infinite).  [Sure - the
'power set' of the set of integers _should_ be strictly larger than the set
of integers ... but it seems like you should be able to construct a
methodology to show it to be merely 'countably infinite'.]


RonL.
(Who used to spend waaaaay too much time working on this stuff! ... but I
DID enjoy it!)




More information about the thechat mailing list