So your argument is that in the list “a, b, c, …, z” the “…” Bit could be anything and we have no way of knowing what’s there and therefore the problem is unsolvable? Or what are you saying exactly?
Yes. The variables a, b, c, and z must have a stated correlation. Variable names do not implicitly have any relation between them. Ellipses work for numbers because a series of 1, 2, 3 … 100 can be inferred using the rules of mathematics. A series of a, b, c … z cannot; the series can only be inferred using the rules of the English language.
so is the word “simplify”. I guess we’ll never know what they mean by that because if you pretend you don’t speak English, then there’s no way of knowing!
Because the
...notation effectively means: fill in the blanks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis#In_mathematical_notation (or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterated_binary_operation if you want more…)Yes for numbers, which these are not.
So your argument is that in the list “a, b, c, …, z” the “…” Bit could be anything and we have no way of knowing what’s there and therefore the problem is unsolvable? Or what are you saying exactly?
Yes. The variables a, b, c, and z must have a stated correlation. Variable names do not implicitly have any relation between them. Ellipses work for numbers because a series of 1, 2, 3 … 100 can be inferred using the rules of mathematics. A series of a, b, c … z cannot; the series can only be inferred using the rules of the English language.
so is the word “simplify”. I guess we’ll never know what they mean by that because if you pretend you don’t speak English, then there’s no way of knowing!
Right. Well, yeah, I guess your pedantic response is a lot more logical than the intended answer that other people have pointed out. Have a nice day!