• EatBorekYouWreck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    But why would you divide the numbers to two sets? It is reasonable for when considering 2, but if you really want to generalize, for 3 you’d need to divide the numbers to three sets. One that divide by 3, one that has remainder of 1 and one that has remainder of 2. This way you have 3 symmetric sets of numbers and you can give them special names and find their special properties and assign importance to them. This can also be done for 5 with 5 symmetric sets, 7, 11, and any other prime number.

    • Foofighter
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      1 year ago

      Not sure about how relevant this in reality, but when it comes to alternating series, this might be relevant. For example the Fourier series expansion of cosine and other trig function?

      • EatBorekYouWreck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        But then it is more natural to use the complex version of the Fourier series, which has a neat symmetric notation

        • Foofighter
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          1 year ago

          True, but normally, you’d introduce trig functions before complex numbers. Anyhow: I appreciate the meme and the complete over the top discussion about it :D

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Then you have one set that contains multiples of 3 and two sets that do not, so it is not symmetric.

      • rbhfd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’d have one set that are multiples of 3, one set that are multiples of 3 plus 1, and one stat that are multiples of 3 minus 1 (or plus 2)

        • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          How do you people even math.

          You might as well use a composite number if you want to create useless sets of numbers.