Circular Logic - OTA

[grim_heaper]

Who: Sho and anyone who finds him underground
What: Examining a mysterious circle.
Where: Underground
When: Mid-may
Warnings: Sho may try and kill someone again, maybe? It's Sho, so can't say for sho'.




A group of students, knowing Sho's interest in circles and magic had shown Sho the underground circle they had found. There are runes written around it in an ancient language. A proficient student explains that the runes clearly state that ten coins must be placed in the circle to activate it, but another student on the opposite side of it states that twenty coins are needed.

Looking to Sho, the professor considered a moment, then pulled out some tools and ran some calculations. First he took down the circumference, then the diameter. He leaned back on his heels, pleased that Pi was as it ought to be. So things were going right. He then explained to the students what he did and gave an impromptu lesson on Pi.

Once that was done he considered the students who suggested ten and twenty. "Please excuse my dear aunt sally," he said, nodding a bit. "Alright, let's start crunching some numerical ideas. Start with factoring this. If we wanted to meet halfway between the two how many would we use?"

Comments

[sevenyearsasleep]

You could practically hear the crickets.

Link did catch one student mutter to another, "Why? Don't you understand them, Professor?"

Although, his ears might have helped in hearing that little side snide remark.

[grim_heaper]

He narrowed his eyes at all of them. "Well, it looks like all of you are getting an extra hour of work on sets. See me in my office Monday after school."

He crossed his arms. "Sets are zetta useful, so here's a crash course for you zeroes. A set is any grouping of numbers or things that share a specific trait. So a set of all two digit prime numbers would have all the prime numbers from 11 to 97." And then despite the fact that no one asked, he barked out the numbers in order.

"11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97."

"Can anyone give me a set of all numbers that are the result of dividing by zero?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

"That's, um, not possible. I mean, you can't divide anything by zero..."

Or, at least, Link was reasonably sure you couldn't. Unless there was some higher magic that allowed that.

[grim_heaper]

He clapped him on the shoulder. "Looks like someone here is adding up his points towards an A. So if you can't divide by zero, a set containing all numbers that are the result of dividing by zero would be....?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Non-existent?"

[grim_heaper]

"Empty," he provided. "A set that contains nothing is an empty set."

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link supposed that made sense, but, he wasn't sure where this was going either.

[grim_heaper]

"Now, here is the zeta fun. If I told you to make me a set of all groups of five turtles and a set that had all groups of ten turtles and there were exactly ten turtles, how many sets do we have of each?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link stared for a moment, his left ear twitching slightly.

"Uh...wait....so...um....two groups of five and then regroup into one group of ten? Or uh, two groups of five that are included in one group of ten."

Head tilt. "Why would someone need that many turtles?"

[grim_heaper]

"The second one," he said, proud. Good for him. Then he laughed. "Some people are Zetta weirdos."

[sevenyearsasleep]

Well, at least he got the right answer. Math did make some sense, even if in a weird way, sometimes.

[grim_heaper]

"So." He grinned. "If one person thinks that this requires ten coins, and the other says it requires twenty, how could this be resolved using sets?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Two sets of ten, but...wouldn't that still trigger something if one is wrong?"

[grim_heaper]

"Perhaps. If we put both sets in simultaneously." He smirked. "Soh Cah Toa."

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Oh."

Link understood Hylian as well as the basics of the Gerudo language and still had trouble understanding his Maths professor.

Even when he was pretty sure he understood the concept the guy was trying to teach.

[grim_heaper]

"So, what do you think will happen class, if we put in two sets of ten with a gap between equalling point two seconds?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link had no idea. He just privately hoped it didn't involve dying painfully.

[grim_heaper]

When no one supplied an answer, he pulled out coins from his pocket, separating into two handfuls of ten and ten. "Shall we find out?"

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link side-eyed his fellow students. Hopefully no horrible demons would arise.

[grim_heaper]

"Link, as the star student of the day, add yourself to this," he held out ten of the coins to the boy.

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link's ears dropped a faction of an inch.

"Uh, are you sure about that sir?"

[grim_heaper]

"Of course, you earned it." He did a quick calculation of their relative heights under his breath. "Drop it exactly one half second after I drop mine. Then stand back."

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link nodded, feeling very unsure about this. But, it wasn't as if this was going to summon a dead hand or anything.

...he hoped.

He held the coins out, ready.

I so wanted to say he'd drop them one by one, but he dropped them all at once.

[grim_heaper]

"Any tree can drop an apple. I'll drop the freaking moon!" With that, and a smirk, he dropped his coins.

heh

[sevenyearsasleep]

And Link followed his example, ready to draw his sword if need be.