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+---- Thread: Does 1 Times 1 Equal 2 ? (/showthread.php?tid=511)
Does 1 Times 1 Equal 2 ? - mklabgr - 06-19-2026
Summary
The article “Does 1 Times 1 Equal 2?” by Richard Lipton discusses the unusual claim that ($1 \times 1 = 2$), associated with Terrence Howard, and explores whether such a statement could make sense in a different mathematical system. Lipton explains that in standard arithmetic the statement is false, but if we redefine multiplication with a new operation, such as ($A \otimes B = 2AB$), then ($1 \otimes 1 = 2$) while preserving properties like commutativity, associativity, and distributivity.
The point is that changing the definition of an operation can create a consistent alternative system, but it does not represent a discovery that overturns ordinary mathematics—it is essentially a relabeling or rescaling of familiar arithmetic.
ARTICLE