this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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Always bothered me that this feels unintuitive in maths, even though this is precisely what maths tries to model with division.
But yeah, being able to divide by fractions of 1 and negative numbers and whatnot, that really does not make it feel like you're cutting cake.
If you divide two cakes by half a cake you get four half cakes.
And negative cakes just make you more hungry. So if you're 2 cakes hungry and I give you 5 you'll only have 3 left because you ate them.
Yeah, I guess, lots of maths being done without units is the culprit here.
2 / 0.5 = 4
just makes it sound like you've magically applied some transformation to2
, which has cloned it.2 cakes / 0.5 cakes = 4 half-cakes
rather makes it clear why it's suddenly double the amount, without cloning involved.I'm quite excited to help with any other things you have difficulties with.