If I hold out my hand and tell you that there are no coins in my hand and I open it and there are no coins. Didn't I just prove a negative?
2006-06-06 16:21:41 · 11 answers · asked by Luke J 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
It's late. Forgive the sloppy punctuation.
2006-06-06 16:22:35 · update #1
I think a lot of you are confused about the what a negative is. In this case, it doesn't have anything to do with negative numbers. A negative statement is one that uses the words "not" or "never."
Examples:
I never went to movies with her.
She doesn't have any change.
2006-06-07 00:25:21 · update #2
I think the problem is not proving a negative in particular, but a universal negative.
Therefore, while it is quite easy and possible to prove that there are no coins in your hand, it would be impossible to prove that there was no such thing as a coin. The difficulty is that to prove a universal negative you are implying that you have access to the sum total of knowledge and experience-- in other words, that you are omnipotent. Since it is quite easy to prove the specific negative, "You are not omnipotent", you can see where the task of proving a universal negative falls apart.
Hope this was helpful.
2006-06-06 16:28:31 · answer #1 · answered by Chris Davidson 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In mathematics we define things in this way all the time. When people only knew of "counting" numbers, there was no solution to a problem like: what is 3 minus 7? 7 minus 3 is easy, but how can you take away 7 objects from a pile of 3 objects? It is impossible. It makes no sense. So we define the question as being the solution. There is a set of questions that are all the same: 3-7, 2-6, 1-5, 0-4 and so on in the other direction. We take the lowest one, 0-4, and define it as our solution. We drop the zero by custom, leaving us with negative four. By now people are well aware of how useful this "impossible" number is. It exists, even if beyond our "normal" thinking. Similarly, since all numbers multiplied by themselves yield a positive number, it is impossible to comprehend the square root of a negative number. So we make the question itself the solution. We define i as the square root of negative one. Even mathematicians at first thought that this could not really exist, or have any practical value, and so called it "imaginary." No such thing in the universe? Electrical engineers work with i every day, and could not do without it in solving very real problems. All electrical currents depend on it. It exists, even if beyond our "normal" thinking
I hope this helps
2006-06-06 17:41:10 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't listen to these losers. They don't get what you are asking. Luckily I had a high school teacher who demonstrated this for me. You can not prove a negation... means that you can not prove the opposite of something. While you can prove something happens, that does not mean that you have proven the opposite will never happen. For example I can prove that if I throw a brick from a two story building that it will fall to the ground. Now, the opposite says that the brick would not fall to the ground. I can not prove the brick will NEVER fall to the ground because past experience does not necessarily dictate future situations. I could take brick to the top of that same two story building, let go and that brick could fly straight up (not likely, but I can not prove that it won't) While technically this is an unlikely situation, I do not have the tools to guarantee anything 100% therefore I can not prove a negative based on past experience
2006-06-06 18:18:26 · answer #3 · answered by scoobedue81 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, but you did not prove a negative...
There really is no negative in your situation. You can't have negative coins and you didn't lose any, so there is not a negative.
2006-06-06 16:33:08 · answer #4 · answered by uhsdanman 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
what it means is like in philisophical issues, like the existence of god. or in something where there are more than two possibilities, for example proving that there is at least one ant in the world with two legs is easier than provng that there are no ants in the entire world with two legs, you'd have to look at each ant.
2006-06-06 16:24:37 · answer #5 · answered by my_nickname 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zero is not a negative number. So you didn't prove a negative.
2006-06-06 16:24:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is wise to have your coins in the piggybank instead of in your hand, in which they would be easily spent. Therefore you have proven your wisdom in saving money, which is a positive.
2006-06-06 16:28:05 · answer #7 · answered by King E 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
zero is not a negative. its a nutural. negative is less than zero. and you cant show that you have less than zero coins. you cannot show the absence of something
2006-06-06 16:24:42 · answer #8 · answered by Joey 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
omg i lasted lik 20 mins writing my answer cuz i realized ur right........ i couldnt come up with an answer 4 u.......wow!!!!!!!1 i g2 ask my alg teacher!
2006-06-06 16:27:53 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because, data does not exist.
2006-06-06 16:25:53 · answer #10 · answered by Bloorf 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋