Simplify \* 3 ?

batista · on May 6, 2012

Not the same because it only makes sense to programmers, not a very large percentage of Thoreau's readership (or today's general population).

kami8845 · on May 6, 2012

i was half-joking, but you honestly thin that today's general population isn't familiar with simple multiplication?

batista · on May 6, 2012

>i was half-joking, but you honestly thin that today's general population isn't familiar with simple multiplication?

Fuck, if I have to be a pedant, I'd better go all the way: well, they might be, but

1) they don't use * as the multiplication symbol, but ~ "x".

2) they don't multiply words and numbers... Repeating a string this way is something programmers do.

kami8845 · on May 6, 2012

As pointless as this discussion is, I originally wrote `x` but considering my audience is mostly programmers changed it to `*`

I don't think anyone will have difficulty grasping that 'Simplify Simplify Simplify' and 'Simplify x 3' can be considered equal.

anonymous_mouse · on May 6, 2012

If you have to be a pedant and tell people to use a multiplication symbol, then use a multiplication symbol. The symbol is × (×), not the letter X.

batista · on May 7, 2012

If you want to be a better pedant, you better start paying attention, like for example to the fact that I alluded to x not being the multiplication symbol by a) putting it in quotes and b) writing ~ "x", where ~ is the well known "approximately equal to" math symbol.