Operator Precedence/Boolean Logic
Marko Rauhamaa
marko at pacujo.net
Thu Jun 23 05:46:06 EDT 2016
Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>:
> On Thursday 23 June 2016 18:32, Andreas Röhler wrote:
>
>> There is a fundamental diff between zero and emptiness.
>
> In English, "emptiness" implies a container (real or figurative). The
> container is not "something or nothing", it is the *contents* being
> referred to.
>
> "This shopping bag is empty" doesn't mean the shopping bag is nothing.
> It means that the set of items in the bad is the null set, i.e. there
> are ZERO items in the bag.
I once read this puzzle in a book:
There was a shipwreck in the middle of an ocean. The ship and the
cargo were lost, but five sailors managed to swim to the beach of a
nearby island. After quick scouting, the sailors realized they were
on a tiny desert island with lots of coconut trees loaded with
coconuts.
The sailors set out to collect all coconuts they could find. After
several hours, they had finished the job and made a sizeable pile of
coconuts on the beach. They were exhausted and it was getting dark so
they agreed to divide the pile evenly between each other on the
following morning. They camped on the beach for the night.
One of the sailors couldn't sleep. Would the others give him his
share? What if they overpowered him and left him without coconuts? He
sneaked to the pile of coconuts, split the big pile evenly into five
smaller piles. One was left over, he threw it to a monkey that was
watching nearby. He took his fifth, carried the coconuts to a secret
location, and put the rest of the coconuts in a single pile so others
wouldn't notice the loss. He went back to the camp and fell sound
asleep.
Another sailer woke up. What if he wouldn't get his share of the
coconuts? He went to the big pile, divided it evenly into five
smaller piles (one coconut was left over -- he threw it to the
monkey), hid his share, put the big pile back together, and went to
sleep.
Before dawn, each of the sailors had gone through the same exercise.
When they woke up, they went to the pile. Everyone noticed the pile
had shrunk during the night but nobody mentioned it. They divided the
pile evenly between the five. One coconut was left over and they
threw it to the monkey.
How many coconuts were there in the pile originally?
The book went on to find the answer(s), but gave also this interesting
side solution:
The pile originally had -4 coconuts. The first sailor threw one to
the monkey, leaving -5 coconuts in the pile. He took his share (-1
coconut) out and put the remaining -4 coconuts back in the big pile.
And so on.
Ridiculous? It was this line of thinking that led Paul Dirac to predict
the existence of antimatter.
Marko
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