<p>I thought of this when I was deriving -b/2a for max/min point of a quadratic function. I know it definately is not correct as 2 cannot be equal to zero. Can someone explain this to me?</p>
<p>no, it's one of those trick proofs, i had to learn trick proofs in Proving the unprovable(course offered at my school)
i had prove 1=2 on my first diagonastic test</p>
<p>killaerone
i dont think that you can make a+b=b into b+b=b because (a) would have to equal zero so there is your flaw in your arithmetic
consider this on though:
If a = b = 1........ </p>
<pre><code> a^2 - b^2 = a^2 - b^2
(a - b) (a + b) = aa - bb factoring and property of squares
(a - b) (a + b) = aa - ab substitution
(a - b) (a + b) = a (a - b) factoring
(a + b) = a cancellation
a + a = a substitution
1 + 1 = 1 substitution
2 = 1 addition