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posted by:
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Brian Drayton
on May 19, 2003
at 2:47PM
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subject:
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Voting and proof
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Being more of a science person, this "voting" exchange caught my eye,
too. In addition to the question of evidence, it's also a question of
when is enough-- when have you reached a point that you can announce a
decision?
My wife teaches in a Waldorf school, where there is a lot of
attention to mathematical reasoning when fractions are taught, and it's
fascinating to see it unfold as an empirical process. You work with
one understanding of what a fraction is and then another one, until you
find one that makes sense, and then you test it with a lot of other
numerator/denominator combinations until you feel confident that your
definition works. This combination of a mathematical notation and
its concrete meaning somehow is deeply absorbing.
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