1+1=1? (1 Viewer)

Anders Englund · Apr 10, 2003

An oldie, but fun:

a = 1
b = 1

This gives us:
a = b

Now multiply both sides by a:
aa = ab
a^2 = ab

Subtract both sides by b^2:
a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2

The conjugate rule now gives us:
(a + b)(a - b) = ab - b^2

Extract b on the right side:
(a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)

Divide both sides by (a - b):
a + b = b

or in other words:
1 + 1 = 1

--Anders

Scott L · Apr 10, 2003

You are correct 1+1=1.

Leila Dougan · Apr 10, 2003

Bad math.

You can't do:

Divide both sides by (a - b)

You're dividing by 0, so the answer is undefined.

Click to expand...

Morgan Jolley · Apr 10, 2003

You're not supposed to divide by variables for the reason illustrated above. In the step:

Extract b on the right side:
(a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)

Divide both sides by (a - b):
a + b = b

(a - b) is equal to 0, which means that dividing both sides by 0 would give you an undefined value on both sides. So you haven't done anything special, just broken fundamental rules.

Man, I love math too much.

Click to expand...

Mat_M · Apr 10, 2003

Yep, can't divide by zero...I had a math teacher try to pull this on my back in the day, but a few of us caught him.

BrettB · Apr 10, 2003

So, 1 + 1 still = 2?

Thank goodness, what a relief.

Ron-P · Apr 10, 2003

I need a beer!

Peace Out~

dave_brogli · Apr 10, 2003

i was running around going crazy for a sec... i think im still confused

Alex Spindler · Apr 10, 2003

I had a 1+1=1 situation once. Formatting in excel was showing .5 + .5 = 1 as 1 + 1 = 1 because of rounding.

Danny Tse · Apr 10, 2003

Brain ache!!

JayV · Apr 10, 2003

Brain ache!!

IBTL. I'm pretty sure this violates the well-known, no politics, religion or math edict.

-j

Click to expand...

Eric_E · Apr 10, 2003

Because the higher the fewer.

MikeAlletto · Apr 10, 2003

The company I used to work for had an ad poster that had:

1+1+1+1=1

It was supposed to mean something and spent thousands and thousands of dollars on some ad company to come up with it, but in the end even the employees never understood what the point was.

Max Leung · Apr 10, 2003

If you didn't know the values of a and b, and you were given a + b = b, it is clear that a and b both cannot be one. In fact, a has to be equal to zero.

We have:

a + b = b

If we want to know what a is, we must subtract b from both sides:

a + b - b = b - b

Therefore:

a = 0

Steven K · Apr 10, 2003

Little Timmy took a drink
But he'll drink no more
Cause what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4

Wayne Bundrick · Apr 10, 2003

Uh, you're in the wrong classroom. This is math. Chemistry is down the hall. Just follow your nose, the seniors are making stinkbombs.

James T · Apr 10, 2003

We had to do questions similar to 1+1=1 in a Proofs class.

Another question we had on a test was this:

Is it believable that a three-legged chicken can talk?

Shane Bos · Apr 11, 2003

Here I always thought that 1 + 1 = 10

Dave Morton · Apr 11, 2003

What Ron-P said!

MarkHastings · Apr 11, 2003

Shouldn't this be in the Math forum?

I still think the answer is $1.00

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