Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

If I say "2 + 2 = 5", and someone else says "2 + 2 = -63", is it correct to say that he is 'more wrong'.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

"Wrongness" has to be defined here. You are closer to the correct answer than he is. Does that mean much? Not in this case. Close doesn't count in math, though your answer is more correct as an estimate.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

In physics you are most correct and the other guy is old-school.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

Oh and in psychology you are so last year and the other guy has worked out a new model others are now refining.

(And that's my field so I get to crack jokes at it!)

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

You have just defined the political process known as revolution in mathematical terms.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

close is only important in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

Looks like a definite maybe.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

in math you're both idiots

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

In religion they are both completely irrelevant, since they are not mentioned in the holy book.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

sure one is more wrong.

if a cashier overcharges you a dollar, and your buddy 2 dollars,

did one of you get overcharged more?

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

and engineering or any real world application of math for that matter

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I say "2 + 2 = 5", and someone else says "2 + 2 = -63", is it correct to say that he is 'more wrong'.

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I would say yes. Obviously in this situation both answers just look stupid, but if we were dealing with numbers in the trillions and someone was one off with more complicated equations than simple addition, it would be hard to say that the person who is 1 off isn't "less wrong" than the person who is trillions off.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

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If I say "2 + 2 = 5"

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Are you an astrophysicist?

Close enough.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
sure one is more wrong.

if a cashier overcharges you a dollar, and your buddy 2 dollars,

did one of you get overcharged more?

[/ QUOTE ]

He gets overcharged more, but that doesn't mean the cashier was "more wrong" in his case. In fact, he may have been "less wrong" by some standards. What if your true total is $.75, while your buddy's total is $214.99?

Another example. Imagine that I'm measuring the distance to a certain star, and so is my friend. I like the number 50, so I guess "50 parsecs." My friend works out some calculations, and they're almost perfect - but he makes a careless mistake and comes up with 70 parsecs as his answer. The actual distance of the star is 45 parsecs. Am I more right?

And what if my answer to 2+2 is 8? Or 40? Maybe -4? At least these are all divisible by 2, and have a meaningful relationship to the correct answer of 4. Can we say that 5 is "more correct" because it happens to be in closer proximity to the correct answer? What if having an even number, or a number with the digit "4" in it, is important to our application?

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

Depends. If someone tells us to go up two floors from the second floor to pick up our checks and I end up on floor 5 and you end up on floor -63, you're going to have a harder time getting to the right place than I. But if we're taking a math test, we both get the problem wrong.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

4 ~ 5

4 !~ -63

QED

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
4 ~ 5

4 !~ -63

QED

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It depends on how you define the "~" operator. In some applications it might make sense to say that 5 is more right than 4, but if you want to speak strictly about mathematics, both answers are equally wrong. In a mathematics course, if the correct answer is pi, for instance, and a student writes 3.141592653 for an answer, then that answer is wrong, although that answer is more than fine for almost any conceivable engineering application.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

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4 ~ 5

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4 is equal to 5 for extremely large values of 4. lol

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I say "2 + 2 = 5", and someone else says "2 + 2 = -63", is it correct to say that he is 'more wrong'.

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The second is more wrong as it violates a greater number of basic principles. There are number of principles broadly and instinctively understood, such as proximity, relative size, oddness and evenness, positives making a positive, and so on. The first only violates a couple whereas the second violates several more, indicating that the person giving the second answer is more prone to error.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
4 ~ 5

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4 is equal to 5 for extremely large values of 4. lol

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i was thinking more along the lines of "4 has the same distribution as 5"

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
sure one is more wrong.

if a cashier overcharges you a dollar, and your buddy 2 dollars,

did one of you get overcharged more?

[/ QUOTE ]

He gets overcharged more, but that doesn't mean the cashier was "more wrong" in his case. In fact, he may have been "less wrong" by some standards. What if your true total is $.75, while your buddy's total is $214.99?

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To take this a step further you could also say what if the cashier gave one of you an extra $10 and the other an extra $20? It was the same mistake, one extra bill unaccounted for but the damage the mistake has caused is not proportional to the physical act of making the mistake.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
4 ~ 5

4 !~ -63

QED

[/ QUOTE ]

It depends on how you define the "~" operator. In some applications it might make sense to say that 5 is more right than 4, but if you want to speak strictly about mathematics, both answers are equally wrong. In a mathematics course, if the correct answer is pi, for instance, and a student writes 3.141592653 for an answer, then that answer is wrong, although that answer is more than fine for almost any conceivable engineering application.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have ruint teh funny.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

Postmodernistically you are both challenging the rigorous adherence to tradition and boldly offering new truths. 2+2=5 is still bound by old beliefs while 2+2=63 is new, radical and postulates a change to the system, whilst being subjective, still poses new and unanswered question to the teachings brought to young ones all across the modern world. Existensialistic mathematics if you will.

We are all right.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Postmodernistically you are both challenging the rigorous adherence to tradition and boldly offering new truths. 2+2=5 is still bound by old beliefs while 2+2=63 is new, radical and postulates a change to the system, whilst being subjective, still poses new and unanswered question to the teachings brought to young ones all across the modern world. Existensialistic mathematics if you will.

We are all right.

[/ QUOTE ]

does the same thing apply for 2+2=-63 though? I think that is the real question here.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

Thinking about this question is a complete waste of time.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

In fact, what can be gained from this post is the realization that this question exists in the realm of nothingness.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Postmodernistically you are both challenging the rigorous adherence to tradition and boldly offering new truths. 2+2=5 is still bound by old beliefs while 2+2=63 is new, radical and postulates a change to the system, whilst being subjective, still poses new and unanswered question to the teachings brought to young ones all across the modern world. Existensialistic mathematics if you will.

We are all right.

[/ QUOTE ]

does the same thing apply for 2+2=-63 though? I think that is the real question here.

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I...I don't know! I will peruse Kierkegaard, Sartre and lots of german authors with difficult names and make up my own opinion referenced to works nobody has ever read in a glaring attempt to state something provoking.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Postmodernistically you are both challenging the rigorous adherence to tradition and boldly offering new truths. 2+2=5 is still bound by old beliefs while 2+2=63 is new, radical and postulates a change to the system, whilst being subjective, still poses new and unanswered question to the teachings brought to young ones all across the modern world. Existensialistic mathematics if you will.

We are all right.

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does the same thing apply for 2+2=-63 though? I think that is the real question here.

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No. Do you see why?

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FYP. Decisive yet cryptic.

Do you see why?

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If I say "2 + 2 = 5", and someone else says "2 + 2 = -63", is it correct to say that he is 'more wrong'.

[/ QUOTE ]


Given that this is a logical problem, there are only true and false statements. Saying that one false statement is 'more wrong' than another false statement does not compute.

Re: Is one wrong answer more wrong?
 

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Given that this is a logical problem, there are only true and false statements. Saying that one false statement is 'more wrong' than another false statement does not compute.

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It is a simple case of applying Degrees of Wrongness. 2+2=5 gives us +1, so it's at Level 1 on the Wrongness scale. 2+2=-63 is a -59 on the scale, so it is in fact really really right; more righter, in fact, than 2+2=4, which has a mere 0 Degrees of Wrongness.

The question we're left with, of course, is: at what point does an answer become so right that it is, in fact, wrong? In other words, is it possible to be more wronger and less righter despite increasing the degree of Less Wrongitude past the point of Extreme Rightness?