source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 18:11:10 -0800 Subject: Re: McLaren on Group Theory, etc. From: Gordon Collins Dear me, dear me. I've been lurking on this list for a few weeks, waiting to get a feel for it, but I must rise up now in defense of mathematics. Yo, Brian! Get yourself a good book on Number Theory. Hardy & Wright is a good choice. (Yes, that's *Number* Theory, not *Group* Theory. The integers modulo N do form a group under addition, but that is not relevant to your post. Issues of compositeness and relative primality are pure Number Theory.) In said book you will discover that 7 mod 12 -5, not 5, and that yes-indeedy-do there are 12 (count 'em: 12 !) distinct equivalence classes modulo 12. Faulty whole-number mathematics on the tuning list? For shame! Gordon Collins Yet another harpsichordist who has forever abandoned the harsh world of 12TET Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 13 Dec 1996 05:36 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA06341; Fri, 13 Dec 1996 05:38:30 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05585 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id UAA03457; Thu, 12 Dec 1996 20:38:26 -0800 Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 20:38:26 -0800 Message-Id: <32B0DD6E.347D@ix.netcom.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu