Please enjoy this random moment of dorkiness, brought to you by the fine people at Blogger. So don't divide by zero- that's my public service announcement. For some odd reason, you can't divide by zero, any more than you can square a number and get a negative. That's another fun little mathematical thing you can't do- find the value of the square root of negative 1. Remember a square root is the number you multiply by itself to get the answer- as a for example, 2 is the square root of 4, because 2 multiplied by 2 is 4. However, no number multiplied by itself produces a negative number. Yet every number has a square root, so why not this one? Actually, all we'd really need to do is find the square root of negative 1- anything beyond that, negative 2 and so on and so forth, would then simply be a multiple of the square root of negative 1. However, the fact that this number can't exist but does is one of those funny holes in modern mathematics.
Another one is the Riemman hypothesis, (assuming I spelled that correctly). I had some fun with this a while back, (I know, dork factor just shot way up there) though I didn't break any new ground on it. Simply put, the hypothesis states that for any given integer set, there is a pattern (and hence an equation or algorithm) that defines the sequence and placement of prime numbers in that integer set. In other words, there's a pattern to prime numbers- they don't just fall randomly into place. At first glance, this would seem obvious- mathematics is full of fun little puzzles like that. The problem is getting that pattern to hold consistent across experiments. One moment we see one algorithm, the next we see two others. Hold still, damnit! I'm trying to look smart!
Well, yelling at abstractions aside, it's an interesting puzzle for greater minds than mine. Yet instinctually, I think we all know the universe is actually an ordered place. Doesn't it kind of have to be? Even if that order arises out of chaos, which opens up a whole 50-gallon drum full of mathematical worms, it's still there. The system tends towards self-sustainment and equilibrium, indicating to me that there's actually a rationale behind it. Like DNA, which contains the code of the whole organism, every atom also contains a type of DNA, and the order of the universe in itself. Thus by extension, the interaction of any of any number of given atoms, molecules, structures and so on will also mirror that order. See how that's incredibly philosophically useful? Throw a God into the mix, and all that God would need to do would be first, to be able to understand and interpret that entire pattern, and second, manipulate it. As for the rest of us poor working stiffs, we can grasp a piece of the pattern, perhaps even a large portion of it. It does, however, seem unlikely that we can grasp the whole. There's always an element of seeming unpredictability- always a chance that some free-radical event can come crashing in and mess up the whole pattern. I say seeming unpredictability because even this falls within the scope of the pattern- however, we with our more limited perspectives are not quite able to see it. This is no reflection on us, just a question of not being able to see everything all at once. And so it goes, world without end, or at least not for a while. Don't drink the Tenafly Viper, don't divide by zero, and stay out of trouble.
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