1

A mathematically acceptable statement is the one which is either true or false but not both. It is not an exclamatory sentence, an imperative sentence or an interrogative sentence. It must not contain variable times or places like today tomorrow etc. Now is the sentence ' It is raining' a mathematical statement ? I can understand "it rains" is a statement because always true but what about this ?

Matt
  • 1,150
  • The idea is that $2+2=4$ is a math statement because whoever and whenever utters it the corersponding assertion result true. This is not with "It is raining": here and today, if I assert it I'm asserting something false, while if I asserted here three days ago I've asserted something true. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Nov 29 '16 at 13:09
  • Thank you for your answer. So you are saying it is not a statement? – Matt Nov 29 '16 at 13:19
  • If a mathematically acceptable statement is not allowed to have pronouns, then neither "It is raining" nor "It rains" is acceptable, because they both contain the pronoun "It." – Barry Cipra Nov 29 '16 at 13:34
  • 1
    What do you mean by "mathematically acceptable"? – Rob Arthan Nov 30 '16 at 00:48
  • Any statement that can be understood by a non-mathematician is not really a mathematical one, except for such that can appear to others to be otherwise then what it were or might have been imagined to them to be otherwise than what is really mathematically acceptable if not completely disproved otherwise. – A.Γ. Nov 30 '16 at 12:07

2 Answers2

5

According to your definition of a mathematically acceptable statement, the sentence "it is raining" would NOT be considered acceptable for the following reasons:

  • It is subjective to the context in which you would be using said sentence.the truth value of the "it" would depend on the object being talked about in the previous sentence.
  • It would also depend on the exact meaning of the word raining, for example, you could mean that it is raining water in that moment, however if you were talking about cats or dogs, then it would refer to the figurative (or literal) cats or dogs raining from the sky.
  • It is also limited to scope, the statement is limited by the scope of area to which you are referring. Are you referring to the entire planet, or are you referring to a specific geological area? Whereas a statement such as 2 + 2 = 4 would be true no matter where it is referred to.
  • Lastly, if it contains no variable statements, such as the passage of time, then, wouldn't such a statement always be false as rain by definition requires falling water, and the act of falling requires a change in time?
TheGoldenGamer
  • 71
  • Can you please elaborate last point. – Matt Nov 29 '16 at 15:44
  • 1
    And in Canada, we have freezing rain so that also needs to be considered. – user25406 Nov 29 '16 at 16:08
  • 1
    @RaghavSingal rain is the falling of water(or ice) from the sky right? Therefore, in order for water to "fall" we would need it to cross a distance downwards over a period of time. as (speed = distance/time). Therefore, if your statement does not include a length of time, then we can assume that we are talking about that exact moment in time, which means that time does not pass, and therefore water can not fall, which means that it can not be called rain, and so your statement of it raining would always be false – TheGoldenGamer Dec 06 '16 at 03:31
  • But how can we assume that we are taking about exact moment the tense is present continuous that means the event of rain has been going on for some particular amount of time . Hence probably others answer saying it is not a statement seems more sensible. – Matt Dec 06 '16 at 09:54
  • @RaghavSingal in that case, doesn't the difference come down to semantics? For example "It is raining" vs "There is rain", in that case the actual interpretation of the sentence could have an impact on the evaluation of the statement(the inclusion of time). Furthermore, the tense only specifies that the action is ongoing, in that the action has been taking place since moment x --> now. If so, then we would have to take into account the distance of moment x from the current time. If it is small enough, then the statement could also be false, causing the truth value to become ambiguous, no? – TheGoldenGamer Dec 06 '16 at 13:43
0

If you look at the definition of statement by typing it on google, you will find that:

A statement (or proposition) is a sentence that is either true or false ( not both).

Now there is nothing different in mathematical statement:

A Mathematical statement is a sentence that is either mathematically true or false ( not both).

In your case "It is raining", is not a mathematical statement. This is because there is sense of ambiguity. It is possible that "It is raining" and it is also possible that "It isn't raining". It is not certain that "It is raining" or not. You can't say after reading the sentence that "It is raining" or not (It is true or false). So, this is not following the criteria of being a mathematical statement.

Vidyanshu Mishra
  • 10,143