From Overcoming Bias, a proof that 2 is, in fact, equal to one. First let x = y = 1.
There is a simple flaw in this proof that an astute observer will identify, but it’s still good for cocktail parties and stumping children on the border of abstract reasoning! Wikipedia has a page on invalid proofs for 1 = -1, 2 = 1, -2 = 1 and &infinity; = 1/4, all of which seem mighty plausible.
Clive Thompson provides a nice backstory to the Physics paper most likely to become a movie if it’s true: An exceptionally simple theory of everything” by Garrett Lisi, a 39-year-old surfer/physicist affiliated with no university. The Wikipedia page provides a nice explanation of the paper, its reception by the physics community, and a pretty visualization of the E8 polytope.
This is the personal weblog of Cameron Marlow, research scientist at Facebook. You can find a comprehensive list of content in the archives, or you can simply search using the box above.
