04 August 2006

A Mathematician Writes

One of the first things that children learn in maths is to do a quick check of their answers. Not quite sure if your calculation of 6.9574635 times 4.085647 is correct? Well, 7 times 4 is 28, so your answer really ought to be pretty close to that.

Common sense, right?

Wrong: Amazon says it's a brilliantly-novel idea that no one has ever had before in the history of the universe - and they have a patent to prove it. Words - and numbers - fail me. (Via Techdirt.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazon has got to be kidding, right? Then again, they probably aren't. It's amazing how they are using complicated bureaucratese to explain a simple, unoriginal concept. I assume that they are using obfuscative language to cover that up, and make it look otherwise.

Yet again I shake my head in wonder at the stupidity of it all.

Glyn Moody said...

I know, it's utterly extraordinary. If I weren't addicted to buying things from Amazon, I'd boycott them....