I have no exact prompt to share, but he does write:
> Appreciate the insight! If it's at all of interest, this was a one-shot (supposed) solution in about 80 mins, unlike some other problems like 851 that took over 20 continuations totalling perhaps 15-20 hours of reasoning time.
Ok nvm I can't resist wasting my time and typing stuff on the internet again, probably gonna regret it later.
How is it not obvious to the dullest of the dull that this visual proof is not supposed to work for goddamn commutative rings lmao
It's probably not even supposed to work for negative reals, 0 or the case b>a. It's supposed to demonstrate the central idea of the visual proof. Also yes, by choosing suitable ways to interpret the lengths shown in the diagrams it's absolutely possible to extend the proof to all reals but I'm not convinced it's meant to be interpreted like that.
But bringing commutative rings into this... man you're funny
> One man, watching me while I cut 8-foot lengths of tubing for him, told me that I could simply hook my tape measure over the saw blade and subtract ⅛-inch to find the correct length. Piqued after I explained why his method wouldn’t work for a precise measurement, he responded by quizzing me on something I wasn’t likely to know: the purpose of the black diamonds on my tape measure.
Perhaps I'm picturing the situation wrong, but why wouldn't it work on the precision levels of a tape measure?
However, I think this is still likely a very significant achievement/milestone.