Re: Brain-melting mathematics
Sorry for this string of posts, just keep thinking of new things.
I liked the bit in Fermat where he gives an example of mathematical fact that can defy intuition. He explains that the probability of 2 people involved in a game of football, that is 23 people in total, sharing a birthday, is actually slightly over 50% !
Still makes no sense to me from the point of view of intuition as he is quite clearly right, but it's like an Escher or something where what you know to be the truth is so incompatible with what you naturally think.
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