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| sketchbook/may 2020 |
Z.
Zechariah, book of.
That is what popped into my mind when I wrote Z.
What does the Nouveau Petit Larousee (from 1968) that sits alongside me at this desk have to say on the matter?
(I hear you asking).
Vingt-sixième lettre de l’alphabet et vingtième des consonnes.
Nothing about Zechariah so far.
Nothing about Zebedee either, another word that pops into mind today.
What else does this dictionary have for me?
In mathematics; Z symbole de l’ensemble des nombres entiers relatifs.
Numbers again.
Which is also one of the books in The Old Testament version of The Bible.
Now there’s a co-incidence!
And numbers – like all things – are relative. And relative to this series of posts we are at the end of a run.
Possibly at the end of confinement – even though all the things I love (cinema, cafés, theatres, travel) remain closed.
This post is titled ‘confinement 26) but in fact today is day 73 of being this way.
It’s probably time for me to move on.
Zap the Zeitgeist.
Z.
Posts
3 comments:
Hello!
Z is much more important than you say. Consider: xn + yn = zn, where integer n ≥ 3, has no non-trivial solutions x, y, z ∈ Q. No non-trivial solutions! So Z is both seriously difficult and very important. Pierre de Fermat around 1637 first proposed this in the margins of a copy of "Arithmetica". He had always been a serial defacer of library books. I love marginalia - don't you? Especially when they are scribbled by mathematicians in old books such Principia Mathematica - I once held a copy in my hands though, skin to book contact was prohibited. Newton had also scribbled in the margins but then, it was HIS book. It took until 1994 for Andrew Wiles to solve this conundrum about Z. Thus it is that I propose to you that "Z" is seriously tricky.
I much enjoy reading your blog but you must stop dissing X, Y and Z.
Yours Herb T Roachclip
Dear Mr Peter, when did i EVER say that Z was not important? I've saved the best until last !!
As it often is.
Zzzzzz for example, or buzz.
And i am shocked that in on elf your former (skin) confinements you allowed contact!!!
No doubt we will have to discuss this on air someday !!! :-)
Zed not Zee, zed Zebidee
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