Re:What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to be More Widely K...
by monochromatic on Tuesday January 03, 2017 @01:23AM
(#13307147)
I think it was exactly the right level of rigor for a HN comment. Gets the important idea across, doesn't get bogged down in the details that would be easy enough to fill in.
I spelt out the parts of the argument that might be unfamiliar. I'm sure anyone here can readily convince themselves that sqrt(x^2 + y^2) >= x [x^2 is increasing for positive inputs, thus so is its inverse function, so sqrt(x^2 + y^2) >= sqrt(x^2) = |x| >= x], and that you can choose a coordinate system so that A and B are both on the x axis [take A to be the origin; take the vector from A to B to give the positive x axis, and other axes accordingly perpendicular to this one], and so on.
The integral business can be phrased however one likes, formally or informally, to account for the idea of a rectifiable curve as one whose length is given by treating it as built of many component straight-line pieces. The conceptual argument is the same, regardless of any particular choice of technical framework.
And if you furthermore aren't sure that, say, x^2 is increasing on positive inputs, we can explore that as well. If you furthermore aren't sold on modus ponens, we can explore that as well. Everything is infinitely explorable (and malleable!). But I noted only what here seemed directly relevant to the curiosity at hand.