“The great appeal of the doctrine that the mind is a blank slate is the simple mathematical fact that zero equals zero” —Steven Pinker
Zero is one of the greatest gifts ever bestowed upon humankind. It is basis for modern day calculus, statistics, financial accounting, and computers.
It is believed that zero originated in three separate places—Mesopotamia, India, and Mesoamerica. In Mesopotamia the first recordings of zero was in 300 BCE. For them, zero was just a placeholder between numerals in a number such as 502 and never had an actual numerical value. Similarly, the Mayans in 350 CE independently began using zero, but just like Mesopotamia it was strictly for place holding (www.mediatinker.com). In 500 CE, Ancient India created the first known actual concept of zero. In 628 CE, the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta wrote the rules of zero in his book Bramhasputha Siddhanta. In this book the rules he alludes to are one, zero doesn't change the value to number when added or subtracted, and two, when zero is multiplied with a number the value becomes nothing (www.xslv.org).
In mathe...
Chasing Zero is a documentary which was meant to both educate the viewer on the prevalence of medical harm as well as to enlighten both the public and health care providers on the preventability of these events (Discovery, 2010). The documentary expounded on the fact each year more people die each year from a preventable medical error than die due to breast cancer, motor vehicle accidents or AIDS (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Medical harm can result from adverse drug events, surgical injuries, wrong-site surgery, suicides, restraint-related injuries, falls, burns, pressure ulcers and mistaken patient identities (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Incidences of medical error have been reported in the media for many years. The most startling revelation in the documentary is how common medical errors are and how preventable they are.
In earlier eras, philosophers have strove to think of efficient, faster ways to approach every day matters. In Schulz’s essay she brings up the point that our mind “despite of its aptitude for error-it works better than anything else” (365). Our brains have evolved over time to a way of ease and correctness even though the risk is still run of being predisposed to error. She brought up the philosopher Descartes and how he wanted to be an “ideal thinker.” This involves approaching every manner with a neutral mind and be active in finding evidence that both supports and counters a claim. It also means accepting and even altering a conclusion that was previously made. Foer on the other hand, makes the claim that our society’s ability to remember has slowly dwindled by means of outsourcing of ourselves. “Today, when we live in a deluge of printed words” we have no need to remember everything when we have tools that do it for us (164). We have phones that remember people’s names, addresses, and phone numbers. We have GPS systems that make remembering routes a thing of the
In The article “Brainology” “Carol S Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, differentiates between having a fixed and growth mindset in addition how these mindsets have a deep effect on a student’s desire to learn. Individuals who have a fixed mindset believe they are smart without putting in effort and are afraid of obstacles, lack motivation, and their focus is to appear smart.. In contrast, students with a growth mindset learn by facing obstacles and are motivated to learn. Dwecks argues that students should develop a growth mindset.
Thinking that had an Influence on some of the principal future Events of my Life” (Franklin 13). By expressing the fact that Dr. Mather’s words played a pivotal role in his ambitions, it creates the assumption that the author’s life has been a quest for self-betterment. Throughout his existence, Franklin recounts his scholarly achievements from learning multiple languages to founding what is now known as a library. Most of all, his entire reason for writing the auto...
"Do you remember how electrical currents and 'unseen waves' were laughed at? The knowledge about man is still in its infancy." - Albert Einstein
The Blank Slate is based on the idea that the human mind is a blank slate, and that all of it’s structure, everything in the brain comes from socialization, culture, parenting, and experience. Pinker argues that the mind is not a blank slate. That we are born with innate traits.
I did my book critique on And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie was born on September 5, 1890, in Torquay England. In 1914 she
the mind is not is a superb point of reasoning that can be applied on many different levels with
The ancient numeric systems aimed at ascribing to a singular whole number or written symbol (up to a point determined by practical needs). This symbol was a combination of a limited number of signs, produced on the basis of more or less regular laws. (2) Three ancient groups of people: the Babylonians, the Chinese and the Mayas discovered a position principle, that is one of the prerequisites leading to discovering a zero and considering it a number. (3) The first appeared in the Babylonian numeration in the 3rd century BC as a result of overcoming ambiguity in the notation of numbers. The sign for a zero that is the so-called diagonally drafted double nail ( ) indicated, first of all, a lack of units of some "sixty" order. It was also treated as kind of an arithmetic operator, since adding it at the end meant multiplication by "sixty". But neither the Babilonian mathematicians nor astronomers treated zero as a number. A diagonally drafted double nail was conceived of as an empty place, that is a lack of unites of a respective order.
negative numbers by “i” a new set of numbers can be formed. These numbers were then
After reading the novel, Less Than Zero, by Brett Easton Ellis, I now have an idea what three movies I would recommend for the main character(s) to see. I would recommend the movies I will soon name because they relate to the characters’ lives and the overall storyline of the novel. Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis is about a young man, Clay, coming back to visit his family during his winter break of college one year. During his winter break, in California, he reunites with old friends from high school and discovers their lives are drastically different from what they previously were like. During his visit he becomes entrapped by the drug and party scene that endlessly surrounds his old friends like, Trent and Julian. Clay manages to sound quite monotone as he describes the parties and events that take place during the novel. He regularly snorts cocaine during the novel and partakes in other illegal activities but still possesses a moral compass that we see enacted in one of the last scenes of the novel. As Clay is exposed to the more explicit realities of Trent’s, Julian’s, and other old friends lives we see the harsh and cruel reality of the LA party scene and our able to see the multiple depths of a character like Clay.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Have you ever heard this quote? This quote is from Albert Einstein who persevered in order to invent many different formulas and equations. Albert Einstein was born as the first child of Hermann and Pauline Einstein who were a Jewish couple in Ulm, Germany on March 14th 1879. In November 1881, his sister Maria was born. He went to school for a while, but skipped grammar school because of the rules. At the age of 15, he left school without a degree, but later he would go back, and in July 1900, he finished his studies. Albert Einstein showed perseverance throughout his childhood when everyone thought he was dumb and also
“The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
It is not only in my own writing that my awareness of math has been heightened. While reading articles for classes, on news websites, or blogs, I find myself paying more attention to the flow of the author’s argument. We’ve learned that in proof writing it is important to be clear, concise, and rigorous and the same applies to an argument within a paper. I’ve come to realize that if an author is trying to convince me of their point, then they also need to show me why their point is true or important. In this way, I’ve become more critical of an author’s argument; rather than just believing everything that they write, I more closely evaluate the progression o...
Zero is where it all begins. The use of zero is well known today. But where did it come from? Everything is created, it does not just show up. The use of zero predates the twenty-first century. It is one of the largest controversies of all time. Present day math and even ancient math would not have been the same without it. Zero was conspicuously absent from most early number systems and all earlier civilizations. So where did it come from? No one knows exactly where and when it was invented, nor who invented it. The origin of zero is controversial. Many believe it was invented around 500 B.C., but each civilization/culture has their own theory.