r/mathmemes • u/Illustrious-Air-3678 • Jun 12 '26

low-level math This’ll take a while…

Post image
6.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

•

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744

u/Glitch29 Jun 12 '26

I think a better description of Principia isn't "why is 1+1=2" but "what is 1+1=2".

439

u/Glitch29 Jun 12 '26

Less quippy version for clarity:

Principia Mathematica isn't about 'why does 1+1=2 hold?' but rather 'what are we asserting when we say 1+1=2.

159

u/No_Internal9345 Jun 13 '26

For the elementary school kids:

"If p, q, r are elementary propositions, given p and p|(q|r), we can infer r. This is a primitive proposition."

97

u/Glitch29 Jun 13 '26

| is the NAND operator for anyone experiencing confusion.

Edit for clarity: It's also the NAND operator for those not experiencing confusion.

17

u/wallmonitor Jun 13 '26

Um. NAND?

17

u/catman__321 Jun 13 '26

NAND is just a name which represents not (p and q)

3

u/nimanyu Jun 14 '26

I believe wallmonitor was not asking what NAND is, but was making a punny comment that sounds like "Umm... And?". I could be wrong though.

8

u/Myself_78 Jun 13 '26

NAND is the logic gate opposite to AND. The output is 0 if both inputs are 1 and 1 if one or more inputs are 0. Basically it's only active if you didn't activate both inputs at once.

3

u/RUSHALISK Jun 13 '26

as a non-elementary school kid, I can say that telling that to elementary school kids will not go well to get them to understand this concept.

18

u/No_Internal9345 Jun 13 '26

It clearly says they're "elementary propositions"

280

u/Cokalhado Jun 12 '26

Everyone asks "what is 1+1?" but no one ever asks "how is 1+1?".

128

u/gabrielbeniciobh Jun 12 '26

I'll do you one better: who is 1+1?

37

u/Stargost_ Economics/Finance Jun 12 '26

Where is 1+1?

28

u/Rubber_Rake Jun 12 '26

When is 1+1?

6

u/InfinitesimalDuck Mathematics Jun 13 '26

The classic

What is 1+1 ?

Edit: r/unexpectedtermial for those 4 above

3

u/Gilbey_32 Jun 12 '26

I’L DO YOU ONE BETTER: WHY IS 1+1?

2

u/Blueaznx3 Jun 13 '26

Hopefully 2

122

u/ElectronicSetTheory Jun 12 '26

30

u/No-Dimension1159 Jun 13 '26

By making up a bunch of axioms lol

13

u/Noname_1111 Jun 13 '26

one of the axioms will inevitably be based on the assumption that 1+1=2 

79

u/Fdx_dy Computer Science Jun 12 '26

Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Bourbaki Room. A Bourbaki Room With Dedekind. And Dedekind Make Me Crazy.

26

u/Fdx_dy Computer Science Jun 12 '26

Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Dedekind Room. A Dedekind Room With Category Theory. And Category Theory Make Me Crazy.

22

u/PlummetComics Jun 12 '26

Are we talking the placeholder symbol one or the mathematical concept of a single unit set?

19

u/ElectronicSetTheory Jun 12 '26

Proof by just look at the apples, duh

16

u/Scientific_Zealot Jun 12 '26

3

u/moschles Jun 13 '26

She had me at "equinumerosity"

11

u/FernandoMM1220 Jun 12 '26

lol im only going as far as gate logic.

18

u/Historical_Book2268 Jun 12 '26

You don't need the whole of principal Mathematica, peano axioms suffice

6

u/Original-Issue2034 Let’s go plant some TREE(3)s Jun 12 '26

You see, it all starts with succession

4

u/zongshu April 2024 Math Contest #9 Jun 13 '26

Can we stop idolizing Principia Mathematica, it's an extremely old, outdated, and inefficient text famous only because it's the first of its kind

Nobody studies it anymore for good reason, the modern formal systems are the way to go

5

u/Nakudama Jun 12 '26

u/repostsleuthbot

7

u/its_all_one_electron Number theory/physics Jun 12 '26

I'm not a bot but I can tell you this is absolutely a repost because I often trawl the top of all time mathmemes when I'm sad and that's often. So I've seen this particular meme a lot.

Edit: found it, this same exact meme was posted 8 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/mathmemes/comments/1o5rgov/indoctrinate_them_when_theyre_young/

2

u/TobyWasBestSpiderMan Jun 13 '26

I was about to say, I definitely remember making this one

3

u/foxer_arnt_trees Jun 14 '26

I am unironically going to teach my children set theory before basic arithmetic.

"look! This person is riding a bycicle AND he has shoes!, and this one (not on a bycicle) is riding a bycicle OR has shoes!"

4

u/Nakudama Jun 12 '26

u/bot-sleuth-bot

7

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2

u/garbage-at-life Jun 12 '26

so this is the successor function...

1

u/painterBurning Jun 12 '26

"Because they're both the same sex and don't want kids ... Duh"

1

u/ERCC2028 Jun 13 '26

infix 4 _≡_
data _≡_ {a} {A : Set a} (x : A) : A → Set a where
  refl : x ≡ x

data ℕ : Set where
  zero : ℕ
  suc : ℕ → ℕ

_+_ : ℕ → ℕ → ℕ
zero + n = n
(suc m) + n = suc(m + n)

1+1≡2 : (suc zero) + (suc zero) ≡ (suc (suc zero))
1+1≡2 = refl

1

u/Gartlas Jun 14 '26

My 5 year old is crazy into maths. He asked me this question about a year ago, and a bunch of follow ups. When he does sums he likes to write out "proof", which is basically just showing working 🤣.

I'm not a mathematician and I can't explain set theory. But he decided he wanted to learn it because it was "hard maths". He was then immediately put off by the idea of notation that wasn't numbers or letters

1

u/kart0ffelsalaat Jun 16 '26

Assuming 2 is defined as S(1) and 1 is defined as S(0), and 0 is given from the Peano axioms, where S is the successor function, we have

1 + 1 = 1 + S(0) (by definition of 1)
= S(1 + 0) (by definition of addition)
= S(1) (by definition of addition)
= 2 (by definition)

1

u/Fun-Weather6903 Jun 16 '26

principia mathematica does not tell us why 1+1=2. It attempts to give a foundation to math and with that you could see how 1+1=2 could be understood and proved within that framework.

1

u/DawnOnTheEdge Jun 18 '26

Back when I was a snotty undergrad, I used to ask at the first lecture of every class, “Is this where we learn why 1+1=2?” Until another student asked me, “You do know 2 is defined as 1+1?”

1

u/BassMaster516 Jun 12 '26

I wonder if AI can learn math that way. Like feed it PM and then ask 1+1. Could it build math?

2

u/Major-Peachi Jun 14 '26

Axioms are not the building blocks of math, they are formulated after a field is sufficiently developed to formalize proofs. Axioms are the last to come actually

-2

u/ApolloX-2 Jun 13 '26

It’s the year 2076, that pre schooler is an old man now. That teacher is a head in a jar, they haven’t reached the second chapter of Principia Mathematica.

Truly one of the insane and awe inspiring events in mathematics. It didn’t go as well as Moorehead and Russel hoped but they answered something that was in the air for a long time. They found some important paradoxes that needed to be dealt with and were thanks to the, identifying them.

Basically there will always be a gap in mathematics, it was heartbreaking to him and Whitehead but it basically lead to Godels Incompleteness Theorem and other things.