A few days ago, during one of the long physics calculations on the room 408 whiteboard, the following equation was written down:
women ≥ a sack of potatoes
This was not new to me; I’ve known for quite some time that women are indeed greater than or equal to a sack of potatoes. But it was brought to my attention that some people may find this statement offensive; particularly some women.
But why should anyone be offended? All that is being said is that women are at least as good as a sack of potatoes and yet some people still manage to draw some sort of offensive vibe (and I’m not talking about potatophiliacs). I feel that we’ve struck up against a deeply rooted misunderstanding of logic. Some people choose to interpret the statement as meaning that I believe women are sometimes only equal to a sack of potatoes. This is not what is being said. ‘Greater than or equal to’ does not mean ’sometimes equal to’, or anything else like that. It’s analogous to the general tendency to affirm the consequent in logic. (eg. When Zac has nothing better to do, he posts on the blog. Zac is posting on the blog, therefore he has nothing better to do.) It’s a very common mistake.
Anyway, I just find it kind of interesting that logical statements like this can be easily misconstrued, even by the 31337 physicists in room 408.
(NOTE: there are not thirty thousand physicists in room 408. I meant something else.)
