Sunday, July 24, 2011

X and Y

     X, you will remember, is the independent variable which determines the value of the dependent variable, Y.
     I’ve always wondered about their association. In every equation, Y is entirely reliant upon X. As X varies arbitrarily, Y follows. Y can be manipulated at a whim by a teeny variation of X. X is an unknown, so Y must also be unknown. Unknown and dependent:  what kind of gormless, clueless existence does Y lead?
     That’s just the mathematical application. In biology, the same relationship applies – but doubly so. This explains why two X chromosomes together are infinitely unknowable to a Y.

1 comment:

  1. Here, in a mere 100 words, Ron Thompson manages to cross not one, but two letters off his list; conflate the worlds of mathematics and biology; and explain the unknowable.

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