nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqjd874v63430gng67kpw5m597f34dr9vr0yhkp8dkmnma8208raysyd6kk0 (nprofile…6kk0)
It's confusing because you have to assume that the students have already been confused in an earlier course.
But honestly, I think it really is confusing. People were doing arithmetic for millennia before Brahmagupta started doing it with 0. Aristotle mishandled syllogisms with uninstantiated terms, and this wasn't straightened out until the 19th century (and arguably still hasn't been). Large ordinal numerals in natural languages across the globe are adapted from cardinal numerals with a fencepost error. Some of this is the dead hand of tradition and authority preserving one initial mistake, but it wouldn't pop up over and over again and last so long if it wasn't legitimately harder even for some very smart people.
TobyBartels
npub1kp…gr9jw
2025-06-14 22:43:15 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…nzlx
Author Public Key
npub1kpf5nh0jvj3ygrlz3zw2s2qvy2dpdp5zdlwnl2nqujugfugumkfqngr9jwPublished at
2025-06-14 22:43:15 UTCEvent JSON
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