Re: [xmca] a minus times a plus

[Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Wow!! That message about missing someone was aimed at Jerry Balzano, whose
mirror explanation is really
interesting and whose presence at LCHC is greatly missed.

This entire thread is fascinating. A summary of the approaches and
perspectives for an MCA editorial would be great.
But meantime, there is this teenager in a housing project downtown who is,
unlike anyone of us old folks, still confused
about the matter.

Wash your hands and have a nice morning.afternoon.evening..... wherever.
mike

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 6:46 PM, Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> WHERE ARE U!!??
>
> We miss you
> mike
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 7:28 AM, Jerry Balzano <gjbalzano@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>> On Apr 27, 2009, at 9:49 PM, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>
>>> Why is a number line easier to understand than the
>>> symmetries of topological or rhetorical transformations? I
>>> don't know, but intuitively I think it is. But different
>>> people think differently. Maybe the Linda's rhetorical
>>> explanation is easier for a verbal thinker than a spatial
>>> thinker? (is this mumbo-jumbo?)
>>>
>>
>>
>> Andy, although I do think the Mirror is the most powerful and
>> generalizable way to introduce the idea, one that is probably more
>> "ready-to-hand" would use a coin or a card.  Now the transformations are
>> "leave it alone"/"turn it over", and there is nothing esoteric or even
>> particularly "geometric" about them (the pattern is pre-numerical AND
>> pre-geometric).   Turn-it-over twice in succession has same result as
>> leave-it-alone.  Not done with mirrors, or numbers.  ;)
>>
>> But the importance of the pattern is its ubiquity!  Even within the realm
>> of numbers, before the child tackles the "less than zero" stuff, it's
>> customary to learn the "Evens" and the "Odds".  Well, consider how the Evens
>> and Odds behave under addition:  E+E = E;  E+O = O;  O+E = O;  O+O = E.
>>  Adding an odd number "flips" (reflects) what (some of) us grownups would
>> call the "parity" of the number, whereas adding an even number "leaves it
>> alone".  Kind of like what multiplying pos & neg numbers do to the sign of
>> their product.
>>
>> Jerry
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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