it goes without saying

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People, can you say any real reason, why 4+5=9? Or 7+6=13? I know only one answer: "That is because of special human agreement". We can say the same about any phenomenon in this world. If we change the agreement, we can have everything in every form

(Forgive me for my poor english)

In the first place...

What does 4+5 mean?
What does 7+6 mean?

you're right concerning we've agreed that 4 is a symbol that means a specific amount.
Just as 5 6 and 7 is an amount.

Because we've agreed to use the word "four" instead of "duh. duh. duh. duh." Or "squelkatraz". And we agree that five is five, not "duh. duh. duh. duh. duh" or "beeniflishya".
We also agree that four plus five is nine, not "Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh." or "squelkiemessaflishiemotya".

It's all the measurements of discrete quantities built on a base-10 system.

The base is not absolute. It is little more than chance that the world agreed on base 10.

If I were to say:
0001 + 0101 = 0110, it would be understood that either:
a. I was an idiot
b. I was using binary

Again, another system with a numerical base.

Now, some foreign culture could use base 8, base 16, or even something higher. After a small amount of observation, anyone could determine what numerical base they were using and effortlessly convert it into their own system.

(I could do a formal proof, but that's boring... you get the idea, right?)

Who_Am_I is merely referring to language. Instead of "four", we could call it "SamuraiSlug"... language has absolutely nothing to do with the rules. Nor does human understanding. Regardless of how we perceived the world, the numerical rules would remain the same.

ruudvandrago refers to how the quantities are measured. In this case, the units refer to discrete objects, being apples. We could measure them in terms of say atoms, mass (units of this measuring system are not defined by any natural law, and are very much up to interpretation)... but we simplify the whole process by using quantities of discrete objects.

(though I have beer in me and it's past midnight, so I'm not thinking very well at the moment. I apologize if this doesn't make sense)

It's not just that 4+5=9, it's also that mathematics is designed to be as absolutely consistent and rigorous as possible. It just happens that it was derived from being able to count. Then people extended it as they found inconsistencies, like what happens when you divide 3 by 2 or take the square root of two or you measure the area of a circle and get a non-fraction. It is arbitrary, but it does have an internal consistency to it. If we changed the agreement that math be consistent, then it would no longer be as useful when applied to our world. But then again, it is quite possible to come up with your own conceit for a system of symbols and make it mean what you want. That is called art, and people do it all the time with other contraints and conceits. Huh, now I see art in a different light by expaining this.

6 X 9 = 42 (just use base 13.....)

i tend to think alontg the line of the apple and orange example..

now if i was to have one orange on a table that would be 1,

no orange on the table that would be 0,

one orange under the table -1,

now if i was to have one orange above the table and one orange below the tabel i get 'm' yay i just creted a new mathmatical constant with a complex soulution wooo....

math is consistant as long as you are consistant..... math sadly though is not a constant, the only constants are lion and um..... i supose dum dum....

hmm, i want more constant *geos off on a constant hunt*

jammie

Of course I could ask, if you could explain this:
"People, can you say any real reason, why 4+5=9?"

using other words, because I had trouble interpreting it.

Replace Math with Language and this works better.

I've got a better one!! !

Three guys pay for a hotel room that cost $30 a night. After they go to their room, the clerk realises he overcharged them and they only should've paid $25. So he gives 5 one dollar bills to the bellhop to return to the guys. The bellhop decides to keep 2 dollars for himself. He gives the guys thier money back and returns to the office. Each guy got one dollar back, so they each paid $9 for the room. Now if you add what they paid, it comes out to $27. If you take 27 plus the 2 dollars for the bellhop, that's 29 dollars. Where did the other dollar go???

Dang. That is a good one Scrapheap. Having trouble wrapping my head over that one.

The dollar of course hasn't actually 'gone' anywhere.

I suspect that this has to do with some kind of carefully chosen way of phrasing things, so that the math is flawed.


But that being said, possible solutions

Taxes
Inflation
The Illumanti took it
The Illumanti changed the rules of math (okay, I'm sure that the math is fine, and that the "problem" is just an illusion but hey, Illumanti conspiracies are all the rage)

Could have been the Neocons. You have to be careful around them. Very devious.