this page was updated last 11 October 2000


29

YOUR ANSWER: n = n says "any number is equal to itself."

This question was a dirty trick, but we went to considerable pains to warn you to be careful. So far all we have said about the symbol n is that it stands for the English phrase "any number". Your answer, therefore, is technically incorrect. The trouble is that you are ahead of the argument.

You either already know, or your common sense tells you, that when we use a symbol to stand for a number and use that symbol twice in the same statement, then it must stand for the same number in both places that it appears. We will make this rule directly, but we haven't made it yet, so you cannot use it yet. You are to be congratulated on you knowledge of algebra, but at the same time you need to be warned to read carefully. Now return to page 30 and try again.