Math for English Majors

First annotation on Nov 21st, 2024.

1 quote

Not every whodunit is so pleasing. In some cases, you may run into a cheap or uninteresting solution, like a mystery novel that's obvious from the second page. This is known as a trivial solution. For example, x + 2x = x is a pretty juicy whodunit: "A number's cube is equal to its square plus its double." However, before you get to any interesting solutions, you stumble into a boring one: x = 0. Zero's cube, square, and double are all zero, so the equation boils down to 0 + 0 = 0. True, but dull. In this way, a trivial solution is logically satisfying, but not emotionally satisfying. It satisfies your equation, but not your curiosity.