The Two Plus Two Problem

"2+2 only equals 4 because of western imperialism.” 

- Brittany Marshall, Twitter comment

I sat and pondered over this comment for a good hour. 

The Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Hindus gave us math and science. 

If you walk into a real engineering class today (2020), and go over the basics of mathematical formulas.....a lot of these have been around for a minimum of 1,000 years....some on for 2,000 years, and a handful for 3,000 years.  The professor may not admit this.....but those silly Hindus spent a heck of a lot of effort to rationally conclude things. 

In math, if you mess around with two and two....it has to equal four, or there's something wrong. 

It's like a Ford brake specialist working on modern brakes, and x-amount of pressure will be applied, and on every single occasion.....x-pressure must go hand-in-hand with x-amount of reaction by the brakes.  If this doesn't occur....10,000 out of 10,000 times....then something is wrong.

So I look at Ms Marshall, and I have this feeling that she doesn't really know much on engineering, modern technology, or history.

The significant problem here is that people are walking around with no appreciation of what has occurred over the past 3,000-odd years.  The reason that you can fly from Dallas to NY City in three hours?  Well....10,000 different calculations occurred, between the control towers, the aircrews, the fuel people, and the design folks...to get that plane in the air and safely to the destination. 

The same is true with electrical voltage and the way that you can feel safe touching your washer....knowing that something won't happen and give you a blast of electricity.

The handling of a pistol?  Well, there's math and science built into it, and the safety-button meets various conditions.....involving a dozen-odd formulas.

Your dog being seen at the Vet?  Science calculations have occurred and the dog's weight equals x-amount of medication, which relieves them of pain and suffering.

The sanitation factor of your food?  Well, all that handling and cooking....relates back to science and math again.

The roasted aroma of your Starbucks coffee?  Science and math again working as they should.

So if you come to some conclusion that two and two can't equal four.....you might want to look for a bridge to live under, and start learning to exist off nuts, berries, and pond-water.