A Positive Sign

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positive sign I’m always pleased to see this sign. It is at Heathrow, on the walk down the perpetually dingily lit underground corridors connecting the terminals, the tube, the extortion Heathrow express, and the parking lots.

For a start, I generally like the idea that the ground floor of a building (the one you walk onto off the street) is the “zeroth” floor. (I mean no disrespect to this splendid country I live in, that has largely chosen otherwise, although every now and again in older buildings you see it.) So it is just great to see a (-1)th floor, and all the more pleasing that it is not considered odd to have that. No worries about people being confused about what a negative number is. I know it sounds trivial, but when you see basic mathematics and science literacy seemingly getting worse all around -on both sides of the Atlantic, mark you- …when you think something shouldn’t or can’t possibly get “dumbed down” any further for the general public, and then it gets “dumbed down” anyway… seeing this sort of thing is a relief.

Every time I see it, once the above has flashed through my mind, you know what I think next, every single time? Wouldn’t it just be great if elevators went horizontally too?! Then we could have the imaginary axis as well! But that will have to remain just in my, uh, imagination.

-cvj

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8 Responses to A Positive Sign

  1. Tristram Brelstaff says:
    October 26, 2006 at 12:21 pm

    Some people apparently have great difficulty with the idea of zero as a number. Eric Hehner of the University of Toronto tells the following little story:

    “In the 1991 Toronto phone book, there is a page that helpfully gives the time difference to various places in the world; to the U.K. it says “+5”, and to Costa Rica it says “-1”. But to Cuba it says “NA”, and the legenda explains “time difference not applicable”. By 1996 they tried to correct it; for Cuba it says “=”, with the same explanation. In 1997 they discovered the number 0 , but they felt the need then, and still do today, to explain that 0 means “no time difference”.

  2. Clifford says:
    October 26, 2006 at 10:38 am

    So Paul, Bee,

    Perhaps we should use the quaternions and then call them “hypervators”. Or “Kahlervators”?

    -cvj

  3. Bee says:
    October 26, 2006 at 10:34 am

    Grandpa Joe: It’s an elevator.

    Willy Wonka: It’s a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways and slantways and longways and backways…

    Charlie Bucket: And frontways?

    Willy Wonka: …and squareways and front ways and any other ways that you can think of. It can take you to any room in the whole factory just by pressing one of these buttons. Any of these buttons. Just press a button and *zing*! You’re off. And up until now, I’ve pressed them all… except one. This one. Go ahead, Charlie.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067992/quotes

  4. Stephen Uitti says:
    October 26, 2006 at 8:18 am

    My favorite number is zero.

    It has unique properties.

  5. Paul says:
    October 26, 2006 at 8:05 am

    Good spot Clifford! It is a very nice sign. The only elevator I know that can go sideways is Willy Wonka’s great glass elevator, and perhaps there should be some homage paid a la Harry Potter at King’s Cross to it.

    With regard to using the imaginary numbers for a sideways lift, I foresee some difficulties, because sideways moving elevators also should have the technology to move forwards-backwards as well as left-right and up-down, so perhaps we should include time and then use a quaternionic basis?

    Best wishes,
    Paul

  6. B says:
    October 26, 2006 at 4:19 am

    Hi Clifford,

    I am STILL confused that this side of the big water the 1st floor is the basement. I frequently push the wrong buttons in the elevator and then I end up in a laundry room, or in a parking deck. I am waiting for someone to suggest that the 13 is cancelled from the natural numbers, or at least shouldn’t be used in schoolbooks or so 😉

    B.

  7. Mary Cole says:
    October 26, 2006 at 4:03 am

    The sign at King’sCross is a reference to Harry Potter, not the usual way of numbering rail platforms in the UK!
    I agree wholeheartedly that the negative number at Heathrow is very reassurring for all the reasons mentioned. For some reason the photo reminded me of a sign in an elevator my father told me about. (I think it may have been at his office). It read ‘FOR UP PRESS DOWN’.