Is one wrong answer more wrong?

[soko]

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sure one is more wrong.

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

did one of you get overcharged more?

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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.

[Borodog]

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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.

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You have ruint teh funny.

[tame_deuces]

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.

[soko]

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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.

[StayHungry]

Thinking about this question is a complete waste of time.

[StayHungry]

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

[tame_deuces]

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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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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.

[Borodog]

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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?

[Nielsio]

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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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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.

[jester710]

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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?