Math Is Fun Forum

Is there a place on this site where I go to learn how to do things? I am wondering how to hide answers. I see that you recommend hiding the answers so that others have a chance to work on the problems. Thanks.

Hello everyone,

I found your site when looking for someone to answer a question about logical fallicies. I got a wonderful answer that I sent to the person that I was having the discussion with. Today I looked around your forum and decided that you have some interesting posts.

I am  no math expert. I barely hold my own. However, I have taught dose calculations many years to student nurses (and already licensed nurses). You might be surprised at the lack of basic math skills in many students. Most nurses need to just use simple ratios to do dose calculations, but some cannot do even that. Scarey when you think about it. If you take 2 vitamins by mistake, no problem. But what about heart medications? Digoxin is a medication that strenthens the heart muscle so that it can contract more effectively. But you have to know that .25 mg is larger than .125 mg. If you gave 5 of the .25 mg size thinking you were giving .125 mg, you could put the patient into cardiac arrest.

So by way of introduction, I am a nurse consultant/nurse educator, songwriter, novelist, mother of 3 and grandmother of 4.

I like basic math best (since that is my level of understanding) and logic. I should go back and study the logical fallicies, since you read them in the news all the time. And now I cant remember the names. When I took logic, it was lots of fun to identify which fallacy was being spoken or written.

I am new to the forum, so I decided to look around and landed on the puzzle section. Not sure I understand the answer to the goats behind the door. There is a 1/3 chance of the goat being behind the door selected. When a door is revealed to have one goat, that leaves the 2 remaining doors (one has a goat and one a prize - a car? I cant remember). Anyway, now you have a 1/2 chance of winning. Why would you switch? The other door remaining has the same probability as the one you selected. Did I miss something here? It reminds me of the lighted sign above the roullette tables in Vegas. If you watch them, you think the probabilities are changing (i.e. 7 red numbers have come up, the next one must be a black).

Below I have listed 2 different postings by the same person (my brother) and my contention is that he is using a logical fallacy in his reasoning. However, since it was 20 years since I aced my symbolic logic class, I cannot seem to figure out the fallacy. If anyone can tell me the fallacy and the symbolic equation that fits, I would appreciate the help.

"I don't agree. By denying religion, the absense of religion then becomes a religion. It is similiar to the concept of zero. Is zero a number or the absense of numbers. If zero was the true absense of numbers, then numbers don't exist also. But since numbers do exist, then zero is a defacto number."

"Hence since the theism does exist, the absence of theism (atheism) then becomes a religion also. Look at it another way. One person promotes an position. In this case religion. Another person promotes a different position that is there is not religion.

So if you require the first person to adopt the ways of the second, then you are promoting the second persons view.

That is why in the presence of religion, the absense of religion is a form of religion. "