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God created the real numbers

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136 points Bogdanp | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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zarzavat ◴[] No.45068473[source]
God created the rational numbers.

The universe requires infinite divisibility, i.e. a dense set. It doesn't require infinite precision, i.e. a complete set. Our equations for the universe require a complete set, but that would be confusing the map with the territory. There is no physical evidence for uncountable infinities, those are purely in the imagination of man.

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andrewla ◴[] No.45069072[source]
Why are rationals special? They represent an exactness in a similarly unphysical way as the integers. The rationals are infinitely precise. 1/3 is not the same as 0.33333 or 0.33333333 or 0.3.

The real numbers exist and are approximable, either by rationals or by decimal expansion. The idea of approximability and computability are the critical things, not the specific representation.

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AIPedant ◴[] No.45069950[source]
I am confused why you think the exactness of integers and rationals is unphysical. "This egg carton has 12 eggs" is a (boring) physical statement. "You can make 1/3rd of a carton of eggs without cutting an egg" also seems perfectly physical to me. Your problem with zero-point-three-repeating is a quirk of decimal representation, not a mystical property of 1/3.

Egg cartons might sound contrived but the reals don't necessarily make sense without reference to rulers, scales, etc. And in fact the defining completeness / Dedekind cut conditions for the reals are necessary for doing calculus but any physical interpretation is both pretty abstract and probably false in reality.

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1. andrewla ◴[] No.45107254[source]
Okay. If a given carton of eggs weighs 1201g, how much does 1/3 of that carton weigh? If the volume of the eggs in a dozen is 769ml, what is the volume of 1/3 of that carton?

Some eggs are smaller than others; some are more dense, etc. Yes, the "count" is maybe sort of interesting in some very specific contexts, but certainly not in any reductive physical context. It only works in an economic context because we have standards like what constitutes a "chicken egg large white grade AAA".