Friday, March 18, 2011

Circular reasoning

I came across an article recently that caused me to think about the decisions I make now and how they can affect this generation, and the next, and the next.  Read on.....


Why was that gauge used?  Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. railroads.



Okay!  Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?  Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break and some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.



The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.  

So the next time you are handed a spec and told "we have always done it this way" and wonder what horse's behind came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses!

            Author Unknown

Just a little something to think on....


  1. Now that's like an article I read where a man was wondering why his wife cut off the ends of the ham when she baked it. She told him that's because her mother always did it that way. He asked his mother in law why she cut the ends of the ham off and she said it was because her mother always did it that way. When he asked HER mother why she cut the ends off of the ham before cutting it, SHE said it was because her pan was too small. =\

  2. The very foundations of our daily lives are based on these circular reasoning's.

    It begs the importance of stopping and questioning the "Why" and "How" do we get this way to the present? we need not to accept ALL things just presented to a society.

    First, comes an acceptable used standard in society.
    Then citizens follow that standard.
    Then history of that standard becomes a redundancy for successive societies.

    Here is another example of an acceptable standard, and the rest is history in conceptual reasoning.


    a,b,c = any real number * = multiply / = divide + = add

    Commutative Property of Addition a + b = b + a

    Commutative Prop. of Multiplication a * b = b * a

    Associative Prop. of Addition a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c

    Associative Prop. of Mult. a * (b * c) = (a * b) * c

    Distributive Prop. of Mult. over Add. a* (b + c) = a*b + a*c

    Dist. Prop. of Mult. over Subtraction a * (b - c) = a*b - a*c

    Additive Identity Prop. a + 0 = a and 0 + a = a

    Multiplicative Identity Prop. a * 1 = a and 1 * a = a

    Additive Inverse Prop. a + (-a) = 0

    Multiplicative Inverse Prop. a * (1/a) = 1

    Multiplicative Prop. of (-1) a * (-1) = -a

    Reflexive Prop. of Equality a = a

    Symmetrical Prop. of Equal. a = b then b = a

    Transitive Prop. of Equal. If a = b and b = c, then a = c

    Substitution Property If a = b,then b can replace a in any equation.

    Definition of Subtraction a - b = a + (-b)

    Definition of Division 0 / a = 0, a / a = 1, a / 0 = undefined


  3. A lot of reasons to doubt that one.

    For one, the Romans did not make much use of chariots during the time they were doing there road building. It probably has more to do with the size of the peasent (supply carts, and what they found worked best for them.

    This person has additional details:

  4. whether you are right or wrong, it makes sense and is a good story anyway. there are many things that could also be applied to the theory here. the "because we have always done it this way" is the major reason so many little bitty american towns and cities are fixing to dry up and blow ideas to age old questions are not welcome. sad.


    Actually all of this is urban myth, but fun.

  6. Cute, but slavish traditionalism is not circular reasoning. Neither are definitions, mathematical or otherwise. Here's a pretty simple explanation of circular reasoning: