Threads

The felt-senses of looking at a false equation

5 tweets · September 2023 · 30 likes · 0 retweets · read on Twitter

phenomenologically, please describe what felt-senses you experience when you consider this: 28+32=50

for me the first sensation "28+32=50" gives is that the left side doesn't fit. it's bursting, it's overflowing, there's an extra 10 that wants to fall out or pop out or get split in two so it can send 5 to the other side. very visceral experience of imbalanced quantity

if I focus on the "=", it wants to become a ">". if I focus on 50, it feels too small. maybe it want to become a 60, which I feel like could be done by stretching it or sticking 10 more on

let's try another one. how does it feel to look at this? 7×7=50

for me, "7×7=50" feels... there's a kind of gaping hole, a missing 1 on the left... or a weird extra 1 on the right that wants to fall off and also a kind of ticklish sense of wrongness factor-wise... the 7-ness of the left side is such a non-fit for the 5&10-ness of the right