John Nash's "variability" (was Re: Scholarly importance of Barry Popik's ...

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 8/9/02 10:52:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mailinglists at LOGOPHILIA.COM writes:

>  the letter says "module details." This is an obvious typo
>  (since "module details" is meaningless) that I assume was corrected in
>  later editions. I was reading the original hardcover

I have a trade paperback edition that includes additional material since the
first edition.  The expression is correctly printed as "modulo details".

English-speaking mathematicians habitually contract "modulo" to "mod", i.e.
the following are exact synonyms:
     18 is congruent to 23 modulo 5
     18 is congruent to 23 mod 5
However, I have never run across "mod" used in the non-technical sense, i.e.
I have never encountered anyone saying "mod details".

I also find it interesting that this usage was collected by a Brazilian,
Carlos Cesar de Araujo.  And when he teamed up with the Uruguayan
mathematician Julio Gonzalez Cabillon, I knew mathematical etymology had
crossed the Rubicon.

     - James A. Landau