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Multiplicative Number Ones

UD thanks Andrew for alerting her to this story about a math professor at Cal State Northridge who’s been peeing repeatedly on the office door of a colleague he doesn’t like.

Women are kept from doing this sort of thing by the relative difficulty of the act.

Margaret Soltan, January 27, 2011 10:49AM
Posted in: kind of a little weird

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8 Responses to “Multiplicative Number Ones”

  1. Alan Jacobs Says:

    One of many acts which men perform so much better than women! Or else the only one.

  2. Dave Stone Says:

    “Women are kept from doing this sort of thing by the relative difficulty of the act.”

    Sigh. There you go again, refusing to see the culturally-constructed nature of such patriarchal limitations on women’s potential.

    More seriously, there are rumors of a senior figure in my field who would fill jars and cans in his office in order to avoid the distraction from work required by a trip to the men’s room. Custodial staff, the story goes, eventually refused to enter his office under any circumstances.

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Whew. I was expecting mathematicians to write in and tell me how meaningless the phrase “Multiplicative Number Ones” is.

  4. MattF Says:

    Well, in abstract algebra one defines p-groups, in which, I suppose, one practices p-multiplication.

  5. Michael Tinkler Says:

    Is that the ONLY reason they don’t?

  6. DM Says:

    @Margaret Soltan: 1 usually designates the neutral element in a group noted with multiplication, or the neutral element for multiplication in a ring or field (“group”, “ring”, “field” have technical meanings). These elements depend on the group, ring, field, therefore one can talk of different “number ones”. So it’s not entirely meaningless.

  7. ricki Says:

    As I said elsewhere:

    I know academia is a pissing contest, it’s just that this fellow took it way too literally.

    thank you. I will be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your server!

  8. Jonathan Dresner Says:

    I can kind of understand doing it once, though it’s beyond the bounds of civilized adult behavior. Doing it often enough that surveillance catches you? Dumb beyond words.

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