Same Set Kwetch

{x | x = the boroughs of New York City}

Simps is still going on and on and on and on about me dishonoring the place on earth he fully believes has the honor of having him park his flabby old ass on it by noting that it is only one of the boroughs of New York City, a conceit he must share with some of the stupider manhole covers and some of his equally math illiterate fellow graduates of private degree mills there.  He believes that Queens cannot be an element of a set or a subset of a set because he holds it is not an "abstraction".  I would point out to him that counting it as one of the borroughs of New York city is as valid a mathemathematical operation as counting the thirteen original colonies or the people in an elevator or anything else, the people in the elevator in those examples the only members of a set which weren't "abstractions".  If Queens were to be split in two by law or if it were absorbed into a different form of government, it would cease to exist as it is now without anything really changing about it.  It's been well over a century that most mathematicians have considered Set Theory to provide the theoretical foundation of mathematics, though it's too early in the morning for me to call my friend who would be able to confirm that point. 

I was originally tempted to tease the Simp by saying he figures he's the Georg Cantor of his generation.  But he wouldn't know what that meant.  Or maybe he figures that would be because political entities are known by the boundary lines that naturally occur on the ground and on water like on a map.   He really does think like a Trump. 

I was tempted to do some work on this, so I looked for my copy of "Sets, Relations and Functions"* but couldn't find where I misshelved it and figured, why bother?  So I reached for a resource I figured at least tried to get things down nearer to his level, the "For Dummies" franchise. From the online version of Basic Math and Pre-Algebra For Dummies by Mark Zegareli.

The things contained in a set are called elements (also known as members). Consider these two sets: {Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, Roman Colosseum} and {Albert Einstein’s intelligence, Marilyn Monroe’s talent, Joe DiMaggio’s athletic ability, Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s ruthlessness}.

Why stop there?  Simp's ignorance, Trump's, Mike Teevee's . . . 

The Eiffel Tower is an element of A, and Marilyn Monroe’s talent is an element of B. You can write these statements using a symbol that means “is an element of”:


However, the Eiffel Tower is not an element of B. You can write this statement using a symbol that means “is not an element of”:



These two symbols become more common as you move higher in your study of math.

I think that last sentence is entirely too optimistic in the case of the Simp.  You may as well try to teach it to  Trump, who may still count as an element of the set of the Idiots of Queens, if you define it the right way, It's sad when it's clear that even this level of elementary logic and mathematics is too much for college grads in their 70s to  have mastered.  But, to quote the Ooompa Loompas "What do you get from a glut of TV?  A pain in the neck and an IQ of 3".   It's too late for him but for you parents out there:

*  I'll tell you a funny story about that book.  It was back at a family party, I think it was the Labor Day one, when I was taking care of my two youngest nieces, after school.  They were constantly asking me to read them the Harry Potter books.  I ended up reading all of them to them, some of them several times.   

Anyway, sitting at the long table at the party among my very old mother, a brother's almost as old mother-in-law, several of my siblings, one of those nieces was badgering me to read one of  the Harry Potter books and I was getting kind of tired of it so among the chattering and babbling around the table, I said,  How about I read you another book, 

Which one? she demanded,

Oh, I don't know, how about "Sets, Relations and Functions."  A joke between us because I'd proposed several other math titles on my shelf other times she was demanding I read Harry Potter to her.  Math not being her best subject.  

But the joke was on me that time because I quickly found out if you don't pronounce that particular title, very clearly in mixed company, it can be easily misconstrued.