07/3/09 PHD comic: 'Proving a negative'

[Greg Bernhardt]

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
<imgsrc="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd070309s.gif" border="0" align="top"> title: "Proving a negative" - originally published 7/3/2009 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! (http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php)




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[Borek]

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd070309s.gif

[Civilized]

It's only impossible to prove negative statements about the empirical world, but of course impossibility proofs appear all the time in mathematics, a field which our blue shirted grad student could be working in.

[Moonbear]

"Why are you still here?" :rofl: More than one way to interpret that question, and the answer might apply to all of those interpretations. :biggrin:

[humanino]

It's only impossible to prove negative statements about the empirical world, but of course impossibility proofs appear all the time in mathematics, a field which our blue shirted grad student could be working in.First, it is quite obvious given the other episodes that he is not a math student. Second, all researchers usually make use of a set of "axioms" about the real world. For instance, biologists usually do not question the laws of electromagnetism. Therefore, the student might for instance have answered "given the budget of the University and the standard models of particle physics and cosmology, yes I am sure" even if he is not a math student.