"Marc-Hendrik Bremer" <Mar### [at] t-onlinede> wrote in message
news:3a816eb1@news.povray.org...
>
>
> They are not mathematically correct, because an improtant part of the
> mathematical system are the precedence rules. They are in no way more
> arbitrary than any other mathematical rule, 'cause mathematics is no
science

I disagree - for example I am not offended/shocked/suprised/whatever that
entering 2+3*5 in a calculator gives me 25 but gives me 17 in POV. However,
if a calculator or program ever told me that 3*5 was anything but 15, I
would ask for a refund.

IMHO you're missing the point. Precedence rules exist (once more with
feeling) because common-sense cannot resolve the issue.

Another English example - "rape" is both an act and a plant. If I say "there
is a lot of rape in Sussex" you have no way of knowing whether I mean the
plant or the act. The doubt can only be resolved by some extra words. For
example "there are many rape-plants in Sussex".

This is the linguistic equivalent of brackets in a function. For you to
argue that the meaning of * or + is just as arbitary as precedence is the
equivalent of me saying that "there is a lot of rape in Sussex" is as
ambivalent as "there is a lot of crime in Sussex" because, in some private
language of my own, "crime" also means "oxygen".

Yes, maths is arbitary, but so is English. Nevertheless "rape" is ambivalent
in a way that "crime" is not.

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