42 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



Now we shortly conceive an impossibility, that we 

 can multiply 12,9. by half a dozen oranges. In reality 

 the conception is an equation. Thus 



Suppose one dozen oranges equal 12.9., then half a 

 dozen oranges will equal the half of 12.9., i.e. 6.9. 



This latter amount we enter in the money column, 

 or 



,9. d. 



If 1 dozen oranges = 12 

 then : J dozen oranges =60 



And over and above the mathematical question arises 

 what may be called the specification. Do the dozen 

 oranges equate or are they of the value of 126'. ? And 

 this question of specification is one of the main sources 

 of disagreement in commercial matters. It generally 

 assumes the form of " The goods are not to sample." 

 The same difficulty arises in physics, for it is the great 

 trouble in all formula?. 



And more than this the physicist has ideas of 

 proportion which abrogate the fundamental rules of 



mathematics. Thus the formula r -? 2 is a true rule 



of three sum. Where m and m are the attracting 

 or repulsing forces given in arbitrary numerical values 

 from two magnets, and d z means the square of the 

 distance a very useful mode of thought within limits, 

 but absolutely unreal in Nature. The cardinal law of 

 the rule of three in mathematics is : proportion can 

 only be true when the multiplier and the divisor are 

 reduced to one and the same denomination. Now how 

 is it possible to reduce the attraction or the repulsion 

 of a magnet to the same value as the square of a 

 distance ? 



