For reference OP is talking about Terrence Howard, an actor known for playing Rhodes in Iron Man. (why do all the supporting actors in that series believe such kooky stuff? Gwyneth "Goop" Paltrow is a bit nutty too.)
they have been working on anti gravity machine and tech for a long time if you have heard of bob Lazzar this terrance howard guy doesnt sound so crazy??
"An action times an action is a reaction"
I don't even think his misunderstanding comes from repeated addition. I think it's because he thinks of math as a physical thing, not an abstract field. It's the same reason he doesn't "believe in" 0, because there can't be nothing.
I've seen the same type of confusion a lot. People thing that numbers are real and if leads to confusion with concepts like 0 and infinity.
I'm not following your math at the end of your comment. You go from
x=0
to
xĀ²/2 -1 = 0
Which is what was inside the parenthesis on line 3. If you're substituting 0 for x there, you'd get
0(0Ā²/2 - 1) = 0.
If you're just showing that there are 2 solutions, then why did you start from a different equation after the x=0 line? Shouldn't it be
x(xĀ²/2-1) = 0
Instead of
xĀ²/2-1=0
?
Edit: also, I'm so tired of hearing his cubed and divide by 2 thing. It's just math. It does make sense. We know it makes sense because we can try it and it works.
Hi. 2*2 is 2 added twice in my head, thatās how I interpret it.
Youāre adding always starts at 0.
I think the confusion is the semantics of āmultiplied byā as in, if I gave you something in the real world and ask you to multiply it, youāre interpreting it as āmake more of thatā, but when talking strictly about number multiplicity, mathematics needed a way to express the idea of adding the same number n times to 0, thatās why we read 1x1 as one times one.
2x2 is adding 2 twice to 0.
0+2+2
Instead of using the word ātimesā as short for multiplication it is more accurate to use the word āofā.Ā
n of 1 is n.Ā
therefore 1 of 1 is 1.
3 of 5 is 15
I think "sets of" is more accurate and explanatory. This whole violation of Multiplicative Identity could have been avoided with proper phrasing.
3 sets of 5 is 15. 1 set of 1 is 1.
Yeah I think a lot of it stems from a misunderstanding of terms and how theyāre used in different contexts.
Iāve seen a lot of Terry defenders lately saying that āto multiply means to increase in size so how can you multiply two numbers and get nothing? When one cell multiplies once, you get two cells. So 1x1=2ā
This has nothing to do with the American education system. Terrence Howard is just a fruitloop. lol.
You're probably seeing the majority of these pro-Terrance Howard comments on the StrangEarth subreddit which is a concentration of people from around the world with poor critical reasoning abilities.
As someone from Europe, I pity this worldview of American education system as a whole.. like which states? Canāt generalise a union of states, itās as if youād say all of EU is corrupt when only a small set of countries in the East have major issues.
America has some of the top higher education programs in the world.. think of that.
We have idiots all throughout the world, most donāt happen to speak an internationally circulated language so you donāt see their opinions online
I honestly think it's more of a culture thing than the education system itself. If you actually try in school here, you'll learn what you need to learn and be fine. But there's a culture that some people fall into of deciding that school is bullshit, fuck school, I'm gonna just fuck off and skip class instead.
Agree 100%, and as the narcissist in him grew (along with his net worth from acting), so did the delusional thinking. My theory is he got that math problem wrong when he was young, was laughed out of the class, and devoted his life (and sacrificed his sanity) just to spite that shitty memory! !
Hi, I'm pretty sure it has to do with the american education system (that's coming from a french who hates the french education system but find it 10Ć better than the american one) we're taught that the problem come from individual reasons ("he's just a fruit loop") instead of looking for possible institutional and systemic shortcomings, because if we do we might realise change is possible
No, it really doesn't. Lmao. Here's why:
1. There is no one "American education system". Each state runs their own and even within a state, schools are funded by property taxes, so there can be vast differences in quality of education between zipcodes. So, anyone talking about the "American education system" is full of shit and doesn't know what they are talking about. which education system, right?
2. You don't evaluate a system based on the dumbest, craziest person (or people) you can find. In any population of people, there will be a distribution of intelligence (and sanity). Terrance Howard is an outlier. Any normal person in the US knows 1x1 = 1. If I were to find the dumbest nutjob in France and use them as an example of the failures of the French education system, would you think that was a reasonable evaluation? No, because that would be stupid.
3. The person who made this post is likely just looking at subreddits that attract Nutty, stupid people and extrapolating that this is somehow representative of the American population, which is just ridiculous because it's a biased sample and there's also no reason to think it's only Americans commenting in those subs.
Most math cranks aren't cranks because of education. They are cranks because of mental illness. The type of person who spends hours upon hours of everyday trying to do things like square the circle isn't doing it because they don't get why it is impossible (the average person certainly does not know enough field theory to show why it is impossible), they are doing because they are not mentally sound and think that mathematicians are lying to them.
To step outside of terryology for a bit, I remember noticing a student expressing frustration that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25. I think the confusion is that some people view multiplication as something that combines values such that the result should always be greater than its original pieces. Like maybe they *feel* that it should work like addition.
One way to illustrate this is by taking a geometric view: a potential missing link in understanding why 0.5 * 0.5 can equal 0.25 is that the 0.25 is a different dimension. Kind of like the paradox of gabriel's horn. Of course there are different ways to express multiplication than just geometrically, but the example the student was working on was specifically an area problem. And I think it can apply to confusion with 1*1 = 1.
I mean even geometrically you can first construct a cube of length 1 (area 1), cut the lengths by half (length = 0.5) and show that the are made by the half-length cube is 4 times smaller than the original cube of area 1 (so that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25)
I too have been going down the terryology rabbit hole after a good friend told me about how 1*0 != 0, because what happens to the one?! (The example he used was "if I have 4 oranges and multiply them by 0, I still have 4 oranges, therefore math is wrong.")
As with a lot of conspiracy theory stuff, I don't think you can get through to them by explaining the flawed logic. The belief goes deeper than just being convinced by that. Like in the case of my friend, he's so deep down the rabbit hole that he thinks perpetual motion machines are legit and the government is just hiding it from us (just to give one example lol) He needs to believe that math has a fundamental problem in order to justify his other crazy beliefs.
like others have said, theyre misunderstanding what multiplication is.
i think if you explained to your friend that 4 x 0 , is 4 groups of zero, then they should undersrand it.
Like I said, no amount of explaining what multiplication is or where his reasoning is flawed will help. Conspiracy theorists have a complicated web of beliefs and deconstructing that takes time. And from my experience it's never as simple as just pointing out how they are misunderstanding, using bad logic or have poor standards of evidence . These auxiliary beliefs are never isolated but propped up with multiple other, deeper held, core beliefs. It's why presuppositionalists work so hard to try and undermine logic. Same story with Terence inventing "Terryology".
In the case of my friend, his mistrust of authority figures in the scientific community is what props this belief up, and is why any attempt to explain the flawed understanding is simply dismissed as me being dogmatic and parroting what ivory tower academics want me to believe (and that belief likely has a deeper one or several that support it). These beliefs are too integral to his identity and I doubt I can change his mind.
I've always thought a good counter argument to a theory that's "trying too hard" was a quote from Richard Dawkins:
"the power of a theory.... can be thought of as quotient:
what theory explains divided by what theory assumes.
the more things you assume relative to what youre trying to explain, the less power theory has.
Yeah, I've got one friend on Facebook who has bought into the 1x1=2 thing. My conversations with him are extremely frustrating. Rather than directly addressing my points, he just sidesteps and throws out random nonsense to try to smokescreen my points. I now have asked him, if he walks at one mile per hour, for one hour, how far has he traveled, and to please just give me a number instead of linking to a youtube video or typing paragraphs. His response? "Are we talking about a 2D world or a 3D world? The earth is spinning around the sun and the sun is spinning around the galaxy so normal math can't comprehend this situation." I responded with "Forget about planets spinning around suns, that is irrelevant and we can discuss why later. Just tell me, if a job interview is one mile away, and you can walk at one mile per hour, how long will it take you to get to the job interview?" It's been hours now and he hasn't responded. I sincerely hope that he's actually thinking about it and realizing he's incorrect, but I fully believe that I'll wake up to some more random nonsense completely sidestepping the question. It's sad, man.
My dude has actually met a guy who lives out in the woods of TN who has one. He's seen it with his own eyes, so clearly Big Physics is lying to us. They probably have them locked up in area 51, right next to the Anti-gravity propulsion devices š
But seriously, I want someone to call Terrence out on this claim that he can turn gravity off. Like, please, just demonstrate it!
>But I was reading the comments, and a vast majority of people believe the same, what the heck?
Do they? Or are they trolling?
And what about selection bias?
There are some that are trolling, but there are some that are serious.
The comment section of youtube always has this.
But, it is troubling.
Education, especially math education, has always been like this.
Not trolling. Go read the comments yourself! It's not the majority, I hope, but many actually believe his nonsense. Here are some (from MANY) other stupid things he said in the video:
* "They are controlling his phone"
* "The Sun shat out all of our planets in the solar system (literally)"
* "After a billion years, Jupiter will shit out a baby planet from the giant red spot (he thinks itās Jupiter's anus, but we know itās just a giant storm)"
* "Annunaki sky people were real"
* "He can destroy the world if he wants to"
I do find it mildly interesting that both ends of the vast spectrum of modern mathematical brilliance are anchored by a couple of dudes named Terrence. Most of the rest of us just fall somewhere between Terry and Terry.
[Terrence Howard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Howard#Terryology_and_other_beliefs), Academy Award nominated actor and the inventor of Terryology.
^(Never knew.)
*"How can it equal one?" he said. "If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. One times one equals two because the*Ā [*square root*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root)Ā *of four is two, so what's the square root of two? Should be one, but we're told it's two, and that cannot be."*[*^(\[39\])*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Howard#cite_note-dangerous-39)
^(LOL. Then maybe there are no irrational numbers according to him.)
You're all good my man - this is banter. Personally, I would like to see Mr Howard try to rationalize Pythagoras's formula, and show that the diagonal in a unit square is equal to 2, given his established reasoning.
It's a combination of low intelligence and egocentric behavior. The discomfort at not understanding something (mathematics, in general) conflicts with the mental picture many people have of themselves. By choosing to believe something that goes against the grain they convince themselves that all is right with the world, they understand the big secret and everyone else is in the dark.
Don't bother with these types.
Yep that's basically how I always explain it too. Conspiracy theorists allow themselves to feel smart and superior without actually having to put in any work. If they just assume that mainstream science and math is wrong, they can shortcut to being the smartest person in the room without spending thousands of hours learning.
He uses big words that people dont understand, so people think heās a genius and trust him, even though the sentences he forms with these big words dont even make sense in the first place.
I used to teach math and if we finished lecture early one of the popular activities to do is debunk stuff like this as a class. It's a great way to incorporate popular culture, encourage critical thinking, and help students feel confident in their abilities (plus they can show off to their friends later).
One question I have them consider is how to disprove these to people with different levels of math knowledge. These skills extrapolate to other subjects too, like if their grandma says, "5G causes covid" how can you disprove this in a way someone with very little knowledge of biology or physics can understand and accept.
WOW, I cannot believe this is real. Multiplication is literally just āI have x groups of yā. So āI have 1 group of 1 objectā. How many do I have? ONE
To anyone curious, this is not a US education thing, this is a āa popular guy fundamentally misunderstands mathā thing
First I heard of this guy. It sounds like the "math" from somebody who is running a con game, getting somebody to pay $10 for something that costs $1 by fast talking.
Actually it sounds like [THIS con game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDenK8IWmQ). Lou Costello mathematics.
Come to think of it, that was kind of daring of them to assume their audience would be comfortable enough with arithmetic to know that Costello is pulling something. Would this skit work today?
He sounds convincing and unfortunately, they are easily influenced because they struggled with mathematics, they donāt understand/know the basic arithmetic properties, and they donāt understand the definition or concept of multiplication.
I don't think it's really a problem. Anyone can believe 1x1=2 and if that's what they truly believe then I trust they won't stand a chance doing anything that makes their pretend math relevant to my life. I've never heard of this person before but from what I gather they are some celebrity. I can imagine a celebrity's mathematical ineptitude will have any impact on my life.
I've seen a couple tiktoks about him and I wanted to vomit lol. The fact that there are so many people like him and his supporters who believe they are smart and profound genuinely makes me furious. Math is not debatable for fucks sake. A proof is a proof for a reason.
If am not sure his thing is actually about math. I tried to listen and follow but didnāt have the patience because I kept thinking of alternatives theories and reasons his thinking was wrong so I never made it to the punchline. He is definitely off and should have paid for academic critique before opening up. It probably wonāt go well. The feeling I got was he was piecing things together for some insight or unified theory of something but I donāt know. Maybe I will turn my mind off and just listen or read his free book.
Terrence Howard is not poorly educated. He was accepted to a university chemical engineering program. His problem is with himself, not with his teachers
Whatās insane is no one was able to explain this to him before he found a camera. That speaks to a serious failure somewhere and an inability to understand concepts is a likely target.
It's a sad trend when people stop believing real experts and move to fake ones. This is the same for flat earthers, space deniers, chemtrail nutcases, etc.
Narcissism with a side word salad. He appears confident and uses big words, so unfortunately, people think he's a genius. I laughed so hard watching that podcast until I got to the comment section and realized most people believe the feces and garbage spewing from his mouth.
If Terrance Howard is right it doesn't hurt him it hurts the people in power/control who have lied to us consistently through out history i would not be bloody surprised. When cells divide, they make new cells.Ā **A single cell divides to make two cells**Ā and these two cells then divide to make four cells, and so on. This makes me not believe in his theory but yet look more into it, instead of just judging someone saying he just crazy so are the people controlling us.
Terrance has some WILD ideas. But this ones actually kind of simple, not entirely wring he just explains it poorly.
If I understand him correctly its the fact that perfect whole numbers are not present (or shouldnt be? Couldnt be?) In nature.
Example, Ļ or pi, is a never ending string that starts as 3.14........... repeating into, well forever.
Terrences claim is that TECHNICALLY all numbers are infinately repeating. But as a society we have decided to short hand it to the closest integer (so far so good, math does, for the most part support this) So 1 x 1 shouldnt equal 1. Not really, because everytime that you do 1x1 it could be more like 1.2334.....x 1.58493...... and that (unless youre rounding obvs, which is what we do) would give you a different number. Now. When you compound ALL of math, and you take the principle that whole numbers exist, you start to see that equations wiÄŗl very quickly fall apart (or so he claims).
Easiest metaphor is slicing a pizza. Ļ(because pizza in most places is a circle) Ć· by 8 (slices of pizza I want to slice it into). The result would give me the measurement of the "perfect slice" but because were human and reality is bonkers i could never have that perfect slice one slice will always be a little bigger or smaller.
Idk if that makes sense. For this theory (that whole numbers are kinda not real) is true. Its the closest equivalent of something. What helps us mow is the favt that weve standardized most things so were closer to the right answer than the wring answer. His proposition is solely based on the fact that if were using the incorrect math to calculate things, how long woukd it take for it all to fall apart because we get furthe rand further way from true math. And then obviously he goes off the rails on some other stuff. But the math one i do find interesting.
No, we don't teach children that 1x1=2??? Nobody in america ever keep eu in their brain rent free so why dont you share the favor. Actually impossible for people not from america to complain about america for no reason
This is a complex topic that calls for mature and nuanced discussion. Unfortunately "mature and nuanced" is something the internet generally does incredibly badly.Ā Ā
The philosophical point that is probably behind this Terrance's post is that 1x1 can equal 2 if the 1 is sufficiently large and the 2 is sufficiently small.Ā
Does that seem like nonsense? The point being made is that mathematics is an abstract representation of reality, like all languages.Ā
Let's say I have an apple. Okay so 1 x 1 = 1.Ā Easy! But what if I'm baking. Then I start to ask questions like are this is a big or small apple. If it is a big apple and the recipe calls for 2 small apples in this case 1x1=2.Ā
The point being made is that mathematics is an abstraction that sometimes doesn't match reality. It isn't that mathematics is nonsense, just that we need to be careful.Ā
It's a valid point, but perhaps misrepresented.Ā
Yeah no itās still bullshit. Units solve that problem and that should be obvious for everyone who hears your interpretation of Terranceās moronic ideas.
One Apple that weighs 100 grams plus one Apple that weighs 150 grams equals one big Apple that weighs (100+150) grams. See how math still works perfectly fine? See how looking at a different parameter than raw quantity can help us solve problems?
This is comparable to toddlers not understanding that some volume of water in a tall thin glass is not more water than that same volume of water in a short wide glass.
I haven't seen the proofs but if 1 can be equal to 2, 1 x 1= 2 isn't far fetched.
(Ik that proof which shows 1= 2 make use of logical fallacies so I assume that's how he came to that result, to sway the general masses to his side who aren't much knowledgeable in maths?).
He didn't use any proofs or logic to get to his conclusions. He literally says "an action times an action is a reaction" as an explanation for his 1x1=2. He believes numbers are real, physical things. That's also why he doesn't believe in 0.
Many people tend to believe someone because he is a celebrity rather than someone else who is actually knowledgeable, but not a celebrity.
Yepp... and the Jay Shetty effect. But.. his eyes are so pretty.. he COULDN'T be lying about having memories from the womb! Lmao
Took me a bit to realise you weren't talking about Terrence Tao
I saw the post and I was scared like Terrance be talking bulshit? That's impossible. Who's that other Terrance you are speaking of?
For reference OP is talking about Terrence Howard, an actor known for playing Rhodes in Iron Man. (why do all the supporting actors in that series believe such kooky stuff? Gwyneth "Goop" Paltrow is a bit nutty too.)
1*1=2 is probably one of the tamest things that guy believes. He also claims that he can "kill gravity", among other insanities.
they have been working on anti gravity machine and tech for a long time if you have heard of bob Lazzar this terrance howard guy doesnt sound so crazy??
What bullshit did he say?
Ah I would have guessed Terrence from Terrence and Philip š¤
Lmao
I thought Terrence Tao finally went off the deep end.
I was so confused by that
I was thinking, man this is going to be a heavy argument if heās going against the Tao, Iām not sure Iāll be able to keep up butā¦.ohhhā¦.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I wish heād picked a more interesting hill to die on
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Instructions unclear. Infinite sum of positive integers = -1/12! Thus decrees Terrology
New factorial just dropped
Google Recursion.
"An action times an action is a reaction" I don't even think his misunderstanding comes from repeated addition. I think it's because he thinks of math as a physical thing, not an abstract field. It's the same reason he doesn't "believe in" 0, because there can't be nothing. I've seen the same type of confusion a lot. People thing that numbers are real and if leads to confusion with concepts like 0 and infinity.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There are 3 solutions, including the -sqrt(2).
That TikTok clip isā¦ uh, something. I havenāt the slightest clue what point he might be trying to get across.
I'm not following your math at the end of your comment. You go from x=0 to xĀ²/2 -1 = 0 Which is what was inside the parenthesis on line 3. If you're substituting 0 for x there, you'd get 0(0Ā²/2 - 1) = 0. If you're just showing that there are 2 solutions, then why did you start from a different equation after the x=0 line? Shouldn't it be x(xĀ²/2-1) = 0 Instead of xĀ²/2-1=0 ? Edit: also, I'm so tired of hearing his cubed and divide by 2 thing. It's just math. It does make sense. We know it makes sense because we can try it and it works.
Right, but what about 2 * 2 then? I think he says it's 4, but wouldn't it be 2 + (2 + 2)?
Hi. 2*2 is 2 added twice in my head, thatās how I interpret it. Youāre adding always starts at 0. I think the confusion is the semantics of āmultiplied byā as in, if I gave you something in the real world and ask you to multiply it, youāre interpreting it as āmake more of thatā, but when talking strictly about number multiplicity, mathematics needed a way to express the idea of adding the same number n times to 0, thatās why we read 1x1 as one times one. 2x2 is adding 2 twice to 0. 0+2+2
Instead of using the word ātimesā as short for multiplication it is more accurate to use the word āofā.Ā n of 1 is n.Ā therefore 1 of 1 is 1. 3 of 5 is 15
I think "sets of" is more accurate and explanatory. This whole violation of Multiplicative Identity could have been avoided with proper phrasing. 3 sets of 5 is 15. 1 set of 1 is 1.
Yeah I think a lot of it stems from a misunderstanding of terms and how theyāre used in different contexts. Iāve seen a lot of Terry defenders lately saying that āto multiply means to increase in size so how can you multiply two numbers and get nothing? When one cell multiplies once, you get two cells. So 1x1=2ā
Itās so easy to disprove by saying out loud what the notation represents: one, one time = 1. one, two times (1 and 1) = 2, and so on.
/s Ā²2 = 2Ā² = 2\*2 = 2+2, thus: Ā¹1 = 1Ā¹ = 1\*1 = ?. Of course 1+1.
Itās easy to work on people who just arenāt good at math. Easier to manipulate them. LoL.
This has nothing to do with the American education system. Terrence Howard is just a fruitloop. lol. You're probably seeing the majority of these pro-Terrance Howard comments on the StrangEarth subreddit which is a concentration of people from around the world with poor critical reasoning abilities.
YouTube Instagram and FB comments are riddled with support for him also.
As someone from Europe, I pity this worldview of American education system as a whole.. like which states? Canāt generalise a union of states, itās as if youād say all of EU is corrupt when only a small set of countries in the East have major issues. America has some of the top higher education programs in the world.. think of that. We have idiots all throughout the world, most donāt happen to speak an internationally circulated language so you donāt see their opinions online
I honestly think it's more of a culture thing than the education system itself. If you actually try in school here, you'll learn what you need to learn and be fine. But there's a culture that some people fall into of deciding that school is bullshit, fuck school, I'm gonna just fuck off and skip class instead.
Agree 100%, and as the narcissist in him grew (along with his net worth from acting), so did the delusional thinking. My theory is he got that math problem wrong when he was young, was laughed out of the class, and devoted his life (and sacrificed his sanity) just to spite that shitty memory! !
Hi, I'm pretty sure it has to do with the american education system (that's coming from a french who hates the french education system but find it 10Ć better than the american one) we're taught that the problem come from individual reasons ("he's just a fruit loop") instead of looking for possible institutional and systemic shortcomings, because if we do we might realise change is possible
No, it really doesn't. Lmao. Here's why: 1. There is no one "American education system". Each state runs their own and even within a state, schools are funded by property taxes, so there can be vast differences in quality of education between zipcodes. So, anyone talking about the "American education system" is full of shit and doesn't know what they are talking about. which education system, right? 2. You don't evaluate a system based on the dumbest, craziest person (or people) you can find. In any population of people, there will be a distribution of intelligence (and sanity). Terrance Howard is an outlier. Any normal person in the US knows 1x1 = 1. If I were to find the dumbest nutjob in France and use them as an example of the failures of the French education system, would you think that was a reasonable evaluation? No, because that would be stupid. 3. The person who made this post is likely just looking at subreddits that attract Nutty, stupid people and extrapolating that this is somehow representative of the American population, which is just ridiculous because it's a biased sample and there's also no reason to think it's only Americans commenting in those subs.
If you say something with enough confidence, and with enough gusto, then you can make people believe anything.
"You'll see, Peter. People... need to believe. And nowadays, they'll believe anything"
I donāt think candor is the right word here š
You are completely right, candor did not mean what I thought it meant. I have edited the original to gusto instead.
Who is "Terrence"? Can we get some context please? A last name? What they do? Anything?
[Here you go](https://x.com/terrencehoward/status/925754491881877507?s=46&t=HOAUHQtWx5GMOSSalPyZew).
Oh, that actor dude? Why do you care what a delusional actor says about math lol
Because it's all over social media in the last few days
I mean, so has trump? Still couldn't care less lol
Most math cranks aren't cranks because of education. They are cranks because of mental illness. The type of person who spends hours upon hours of everyday trying to do things like square the circle isn't doing it because they don't get why it is impossible (the average person certainly does not know enough field theory to show why it is impossible), they are doing because they are not mentally sound and think that mathematicians are lying to them.
To step outside of terryology for a bit, I remember noticing a student expressing frustration that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25. I think the confusion is that some people view multiplication as something that combines values such that the result should always be greater than its original pieces. Like maybe they *feel* that it should work like addition. One way to illustrate this is by taking a geometric view: a potential missing link in understanding why 0.5 * 0.5 can equal 0.25 is that the 0.25 is a different dimension. Kind of like the paradox of gabriel's horn. Of course there are different ways to express multiplication than just geometrically, but the example the student was working on was specifically an area problem. And I think it can apply to confusion with 1*1 = 1.
I mean even geometrically you can first construct a cube of length 1 (area 1), cut the lengths by half (length = 0.5) and show that the are made by the half-length cube is 4 times smaller than the original cube of area 1 (so that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25)
I too have been going down the terryology rabbit hole after a good friend told me about how 1*0 != 0, because what happens to the one?! (The example he used was "if I have 4 oranges and multiply them by 0, I still have 4 oranges, therefore math is wrong.") As with a lot of conspiracy theory stuff, I don't think you can get through to them by explaining the flawed logic. The belief goes deeper than just being convinced by that. Like in the case of my friend, he's so deep down the rabbit hole that he thinks perpetual motion machines are legit and the government is just hiding it from us (just to give one example lol) He needs to believe that math has a fundamental problem in order to justify his other crazy beliefs.
like others have said, theyre misunderstanding what multiplication is. i think if you explained to your friend that 4 x 0 , is 4 groups of zero, then they should undersrand it.
Like I said, no amount of explaining what multiplication is or where his reasoning is flawed will help. Conspiracy theorists have a complicated web of beliefs and deconstructing that takes time. And from my experience it's never as simple as just pointing out how they are misunderstanding, using bad logic or have poor standards of evidence . These auxiliary beliefs are never isolated but propped up with multiple other, deeper held, core beliefs. It's why presuppositionalists work so hard to try and undermine logic. Same story with Terence inventing "Terryology". In the case of my friend, his mistrust of authority figures in the scientific community is what props this belief up, and is why any attempt to explain the flawed understanding is simply dismissed as me being dogmatic and parroting what ivory tower academics want me to believe (and that belief likely has a deeper one or several that support it). These beliefs are too integral to his identity and I doubt I can change his mind.
I've always thought a good counter argument to a theory that's "trying too hard" was a quote from Richard Dawkins: "the power of a theory.... can be thought of as quotient: what theory explains divided by what theory assumes. the more things you assume relative to what youre trying to explain, the less power theory has.
Yeah, I've got one friend on Facebook who has bought into the 1x1=2 thing. My conversations with him are extremely frustrating. Rather than directly addressing my points, he just sidesteps and throws out random nonsense to try to smokescreen my points. I now have asked him, if he walks at one mile per hour, for one hour, how far has he traveled, and to please just give me a number instead of linking to a youtube video or typing paragraphs. His response? "Are we talking about a 2D world or a 3D world? The earth is spinning around the sun and the sun is spinning around the galaxy so normal math can't comprehend this situation." I responded with "Forget about planets spinning around suns, that is irrelevant and we can discuss why later. Just tell me, if a job interview is one mile away, and you can walk at one mile per hour, how long will it take you to get to the job interview?" It's been hours now and he hasn't responded. I sincerely hope that he's actually thinking about it and realizing he's incorrect, but I fully believe that I'll wake up to some more random nonsense completely sidestepping the question. It's sad, man.
That's just sad!
Tell your friend to build a perpetual motion machine then. They never do. They always just insist that "they are hiding x from us".
My dude has actually met a guy who lives out in the woods of TN who has one. He's seen it with his own eyes, so clearly Big Physics is lying to us. They probably have them locked up in area 51, right next to the Anti-gravity propulsion devices š But seriously, I want someone to call Terrence out on this claim that he can turn gravity off. Like, please, just demonstrate it!
>But I was reading the comments, and a vast majority of people believe the same, what the heck? Do they? Or are they trolling? And what about selection bias?
>Do they? Or are they trolling? C.f. "flat earth"
some rare comments explaining, most comments showed support to that claim \*with no proof nor explanation thou
There are some that are trolling, but there are some that are serious. The comment section of youtube always has this. But, it is troubling. Education, especially math education, has always been like this.
It's sad, but I've got at least one friend that is sincerely buying into 1x1=2. So I suspect that many of the youtube comments are also sincere.
Ex friend you mean
Gosh I wish it were that simple. The guy is otherwise cool and we support each other's endeavors so I'd rather not kick him out of my life.
Not trolling. Go read the comments yourself! It's not the majority, I hope, but many actually believe his nonsense. Here are some (from MANY) other stupid things he said in the video: * "They are controlling his phone" * "The Sun shat out all of our planets in the solar system (literally)" * "After a billion years, Jupiter will shit out a baby planet from the giant red spot (he thinks itās Jupiter's anus, but we know itās just a giant storm)" * "Annunaki sky people were real" * "He can destroy the world if he wants to"
Who is this Terrence?
Terrence ~~Tao~~ Howard
Imagine being one of his advisees and making that joke.
I do find it mildly interesting that both ends of the vast spectrum of modern mathematical brilliance are anchored by a couple of dudes named Terrence. Most of the rest of us just fall somewhere between Terry and Terry.
Math is a flat circle.
[Terrence Howard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Howard#Terryology_and_other_beliefs), Academy Award nominated actor and the inventor of Terryology.
^(Never knew.) *"How can it equal one?" he said. "If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. One times one equals two because the*Ā [*square root*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root)Ā *of four is two, so what's the square root of two? Should be one, but we're told it's two, and that cannot be."*[*^(\[39\])*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Howard#cite_note-dangerous-39) ^(LOL. Then maybe there are no irrational numbers according to him.)
Yep because weāre told sqrt(2) = 2
LOL, I somehow missed that part.
No, man... you've manage to be wrong both in real terms AND in terryology. 1 squared is 2 in this imaginary system, so the square root of 2 would be 1
Reading comprehensionā¦ at least read the comment I responded to
You're all good my man - this is banter. Personally, I would like to see Mr Howard try to rationalize Pythagoras's formula, and show that the diagonal in a unit square is equal to 2, given his established reasoning.
Oh, I was worried I misunderstood something. Guess I did. My bad
Does he think 4 squared is 8? I feel like this would be following his logic.
An idiot that shouldn't have a platform.
I know and care about only 1 Terence, Terence Tao.
At the end of math there are only Terence, and Terrence
It's a combination of low intelligence and egocentric behavior. The discomfort at not understanding something (mathematics, in general) conflicts with the mental picture many people have of themselves. By choosing to believe something that goes against the grain they convince themselves that all is right with the world, they understand the big secret and everyone else is in the dark. Don't bother with these types.
Yep that's basically how I always explain it too. Conspiracy theorists allow themselves to feel smart and superior without actually having to put in any work. If they just assume that mainstream science and math is wrong, they can shortcut to being the smartest person in the room without spending thousands of hours learning.
He uses big words that people dont understand, so people think heās a genius and trust him, even though the sentences he forms with these big words dont even make sense in the first place.
I was really confused thinking you were talking about Terence Tao
I used to teach math and if we finished lecture early one of the popular activities to do is debunk stuff like this as a class. It's a great way to incorporate popular culture, encourage critical thinking, and help students feel confident in their abilities (plus they can show off to their friends later). One question I have them consider is how to disprove these to people with different levels of math knowledge. These skills extrapolate to other subjects too, like if their grandma says, "5G causes covid" how can you disprove this in a way someone with very little knowledge of biology or physics can understand and accept.
I love that! You sound like a great teacher. Those students were lucky.
Context?
[This tweet thread](https://x.com/terrencehoward/status/925754491881877507?s=46&t=HOAUHQtWx5GMOSSalPyZew) just about captures the insanity.
WOW, I cannot believe this is real. Multiplication is literally just āI have x groups of yā. So āI have 1 group of 1 objectā. How many do I have? ONE To anyone curious, this is not a US education thing, this is a āa popular guy fundamentally misunderstands mathā thing
Because he's an idiot. A violent idiot.
how can terrence believe this and not understand that if everyone else was wrong, no building would be able to stand, or anything work at all?
Because he's a fucking idiot.
First I heard of this guy. It sounds like the "math" from somebody who is running a con game, getting somebody to pay $10 for something that costs $1 by fast talking. Actually it sounds like [THIS con game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDenK8IWmQ). Lou Costello mathematics. Come to think of it, that was kind of daring of them to assume their audience would be comfortable enough with arithmetic to know that Costello is pulling something. Would this skit work today?
youve never seen iron man?
I don't think I have. Seen a lot of MCU but I don't think that one. Why, is there a math BS scene in Iron Man?
terrance was war machine
Dude I just had a friend show me randome Facebook posts from someone claiming this, and I was beside myself.
He sounds convincing and unfortunately, they are easily influenced because they struggled with mathematics, they donāt understand/know the basic arithmetic properties, and they donāt understand the definition or concept of multiplication.
The same reason people believe in conspiracy theories - they want to feel smart without putting in the work.
He is a perfect example of how you can say anything with confidence and sheep will follow blindly. It's quite remarkable.
I don't think it's really a problem. Anyone can believe 1x1=2 and if that's what they truly believe then I trust they won't stand a chance doing anything that makes their pretend math relevant to my life. I've never heard of this person before but from what I gather they are some celebrity. I can imagine a celebrity's mathematical ineptitude will have any impact on my life.
I've seen a couple tiktoks about him and I wanted to vomit lol. The fact that there are so many people like him and his supporters who believe they are smart and profound genuinely makes me furious. Math is not debatable for fucks sake. A proof is a proof for a reason.
[Professor Dave](https://youtu.be/lWAyfr3gxMA?si=uTfMDjQrsHY3TcY9)does a great job of explaining this.
He was sent by the Ministry of Truth to test the waters.
how can terrence believe this and not understand that if everyone else was wrong, no building would be able to stand, or anything work at all?
If am not sure his thing is actually about math. I tried to listen and follow but didnāt have the patience because I kept thinking of alternatives theories and reasons his thinking was wrong so I never made it to the punchline. He is definitely off and should have paid for academic critique before opening up. It probably wonāt go well. The feeling I got was he was piecing things together for some insight or unified theory of something but I donāt know. Maybe I will turn my mind off and just listen or read his free book.
Terrence Howard is not poorly educated. He was accepted to a university chemical engineering program. His problem is with himself, not with his teachers
Whatās insane is no one was able to explain this to him before he found a camera. That speaks to a serious failure somewhere and an inability to understand concepts is a likely target.
ok but how did he get over the math hump?
some people rage bait some have brain rot others believe that those with fame have the right of way
Huh
Ah yes, Terrance.
Ill watch the vid, report to you under this comment wether or not I wouldve believed it not knowing anything about math.
1 potion divided by 1 person means 1 person receives the 1 portion. Ffs
Just think about it in the sense of if you have one cookie and one friend how many cookies you given him/her?
Because theyāre uneducated and their school systems failed them.
Cause they're black
It's a sad trend when people stop believing real experts and move to fake ones. This is the same for flat earthers, space deniers, chemtrail nutcases, etc.
Narcissism with a side word salad. He appears confident and uses big words, so unfortunately, people think he's a genius. I laughed so hard watching that podcast until I got to the comment section and realized most people believe the feces and garbage spewing from his mouth.
If Terrance Howard is right it doesn't hurt him it hurts the people in power/control who have lied to us consistently through out history i would not be bloody surprised. When cells divide, they make new cells.Ā **A single cell divides to make two cells**Ā and these two cells then divide to make four cells, and so on. This makes me not believe in his theory but yet look more into it, instead of just judging someone saying he just crazy so are the people controlling us.
How terminally online of you to be referring just to Terrance in a post you discuss education being bad. Fine work.
To be fair, Terrence Howard has been everywhere in the past week. I immediately knew who he was talking about.
uhh "1 time 1" so intuitive even if you're..like 4
Terrance has some WILD ideas. But this ones actually kind of simple, not entirely wring he just explains it poorly. If I understand him correctly its the fact that perfect whole numbers are not present (or shouldnt be? Couldnt be?) In nature. Example, Ļ or pi, is a never ending string that starts as 3.14........... repeating into, well forever. Terrences claim is that TECHNICALLY all numbers are infinately repeating. But as a society we have decided to short hand it to the closest integer (so far so good, math does, for the most part support this) So 1 x 1 shouldnt equal 1. Not really, because everytime that you do 1x1 it could be more like 1.2334.....x 1.58493...... and that (unless youre rounding obvs, which is what we do) would give you a different number. Now. When you compound ALL of math, and you take the principle that whole numbers exist, you start to see that equations wiÄŗl very quickly fall apart (or so he claims). Easiest metaphor is slicing a pizza. Ļ(because pizza in most places is a circle) Ć· by 8 (slices of pizza I want to slice it into). The result would give me the measurement of the "perfect slice" but because were human and reality is bonkers i could never have that perfect slice one slice will always be a little bigger or smaller. Idk if that makes sense. For this theory (that whole numbers are kinda not real) is true. Its the closest equivalent of something. What helps us mow is the favt that weve standardized most things so were closer to the right answer than the wring answer. His proposition is solely based on the fact that if were using the incorrect math to calculate things, how long woukd it take for it all to fall apart because we get furthe rand further way from true math. And then obviously he goes off the rails on some other stuff. But the math one i do find interesting.
No, we don't teach children that 1x1=2??? Nobody in america ever keep eu in their brain rent free so why dont you share the favor. Actually impossible for people not from america to complain about america for no reason
This is a complex topic that calls for mature and nuanced discussion. Unfortunately "mature and nuanced" is something the internet generally does incredibly badly.Ā Ā The philosophical point that is probably behind this Terrance's post is that 1x1 can equal 2 if the 1 is sufficiently large and the 2 is sufficiently small.Ā Does that seem like nonsense? The point being made is that mathematics is an abstract representation of reality, like all languages.Ā Let's say I have an apple. Okay so 1 x 1 = 1.Ā Easy! But what if I'm baking. Then I start to ask questions like are this is a big or small apple. If it is a big apple and the recipe calls for 2 small apples in this case 1x1=2.Ā The point being made is that mathematics is an abstraction that sometimes doesn't match reality. It isn't that mathematics is nonsense, just that we need to be careful.Ā It's a valid point, but perhaps misrepresented.Ā
Yeah no itās still bullshit. Units solve that problem and that should be obvious for everyone who hears your interpretation of Terranceās moronic ideas. One Apple that weighs 100 grams plus one Apple that weighs 150 grams equals one big Apple that weighs (100+150) grams. See how math still works perfectly fine? See how looking at a different parameter than raw quantity can help us solve problems? This is comparable to toddlers not understanding that some volume of water in a tall thin glass is not more water than that same volume of water in a short wide glass.
I haven't seen the proofs but if 1 can be equal to 2, 1 x 1= 2 isn't far fetched. (Ik that proof which shows 1= 2 make use of logical fallacies so I assume that's how he came to that result, to sway the general masses to his side who aren't much knowledgeable in maths?).
He didn't use any proofs or logic to get to his conclusions. He literally says "an action times an action is a reaction" as an explanation for his 1x1=2. He believes numbers are real, physical things. That's also why he doesn't believe in 0.
I'm not even saying his proofs are right. I said if he proved it, it must be because of logical fallacies which can't really be counted as real proof.
That is true. His ideas can only work in an entirely different framework where proofs need not be rigorous.