• nyctre@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    So your argument is that in the list “a, b, c, …, z” the “…” Bit could be anything and we have no way of knowing what’s there and therefore the problem is unsolvable? Or what are you saying exactly?

    • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      Yes. The variables a, b, c, and z must have a stated correlation. Variable names do not implicitly have any relation between them. Ellipses work for numbers because a series of 1, 2, 3 … 100 can be inferred using the rules of mathematics. A series of a, b, c … z cannot; the series can only be inferred using the rules of the English language.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        so is the word “simplify”. I guess we’ll never know what they mean by that because if you pretend you don’t speak English, then there’s no way of knowing!

      • nyctre@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        Right. Well, yeah, I guess your pedantic response is a lot more logical than the intended answer that other people have pointed out. Have a nice day!

      • The variables a, b, c, and z must have a stated correlation

        They do! a is the pronumeral in the 1st factor, b is the pronumeral in the 2nd factor, c is the pronumeral in the 3rd factor - i.e. the first 3 terms in a sequence - and the nth factor has the pronumeral z, and you think that ISN’T stating a relationship between term t of the sequence and the t-th pronumeral? 😂

        “the series can only be inferred using the rules of the English language” - well, they haven’t used Greek letters for it, have they?? 😂