Re: A unique number for every "person" - can it be done?

blmblm_at_myrealbox.com
Date: 03/15/05 

Date: 15 Mar 2005 19:11:09 GMT

In article <1110852768.289516.29200@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
 <spinoza1111@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Mike wrote:
>> In article <1110756681.990328.158690
>> @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>, spinoza1111@yahoo.com
>> says...
>> >...
>> > Topology doesn't depend on number theory. The reverse is the case.
>> >...
>>
>> Could you possibly illustrate that with an example or
>> reference please>
>My layperson's understanding is that topology deals with abstract
>algebraic structures including groups that were discovered to be
>GENERALIZATIONS of the natural numbers, discovered themselves to be
>special cases.

[ snip ]

My slightly-more-than-layperson's understanding (based on recollections
of an undergraduate course in topology many years ago) is that some
of the interesting things in topology -- e.g., the way in which a
doughnut and a coffee cup are "the same" -- have their roots in
calculus (notions of smoothness, continuity, etc.) more than in
abstract algebra. Fascinating stuff.

There is indeed (again based on my only-slightly-less-than-uninformed
recollections) a field of mathematics that studies groups, rings, and
so forth. I question whether its name is topology, however. ("Abstract
algebra"? "Group theory"? either of those names seem more likely ....)

Since it appears that this is now being cross-posted to sci.math, if
I'm way off base perhaps someone there will correct me. 

-- 
| B. L. Massingill
| ObDisclaimer:  I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.

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