Post #2176852

@hjvt@hachyderm.io in math you absolutely can evaluate the whole series. That makes it different already. And yes there are cases on which they align and that's why I said that as an analogy it is fine. But saying that they are the same is like confusing a map for the actual terrain or like mixing physics with actual nature. You cannot put math in a computer, you can only put a series of instructions to read and write from and to a finite binary register. Some things in math can be represented that way, others things can be approximated, and yet others can't. And even when you can it is a representation, like that of a map with respect to actual terrain. A very useful one, there is no denying in that. The ubiquitous presence of computers all around the world is a testament to that fact. But they are different things. I have nothing against harnessing the educational power of analogies to help learners, but I think the statement in the original image "are just" is an oversimplification which potentially denies the reader the full beauty of the sigma notation for sums in math, and that's why I wanted to add a little extra.