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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Math Quote Of The Day. (Gödel's Second Incompleteness Theorem)

Wolfram stating Gödel's second incompleteness theorem informally:
Any formal system that is interesting enough to formulate its own consistency can prove its own consistency iff it is inconsistent.
The iff isn't a misspelling, it means "if and only if" for those who may not know.

I love this theorem, a source of such great philosophizing. :)

2 comments:

  1. Curious, I consistently attempt to be interesting, perhaps I should be more inconsistent. Of course I am not a mathematical axiom so this can't apply to me; it is inconsistent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Astronomist,

    :)

    I like what von Neumann wrote: "Thus, I think that your result has solved negatively the foundational question: there is no rigorous justification for classical mathematics."

    ReplyDelete

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