Classification Essay Content
Describing and Justifying

Kinds of Classification Essays

lack of descriptions
trivial, simplistic, or overly simplistic boundaries

individual sports and team sports
(passing the ball ...) 1人, 1人 vs 1人, 2人 vs 2人, 5+人 vs 5+人

blood types A, B, AB, O

loved and disliked people

vague boundaries

small, medium, big Toyotas and hybrids?

cultural and social=liberal arts
natural science and natural numbers=science
politics, economics, and history=both

undiscovered, endangered, and un-endangered animals

islands without need for any boundaries?
simply using definitions?

accessories? functional belts, necklace, glasses, watches

hunt cap, work cap, knit cap, newsboy cap

sandals, pumps, boots, sports shoes (only?)

agriculture, industry, commerce, service industry

carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores

flying, swimming, crawling, 2 footed, 4 footed animals

overlapping territory
missing areas

positive integers, negative integers, fractions, decimals
(no irrational numbers, no imaginary or complex number, no matrices)

water sports (just swimming?), ball only, ball and bat, ball and racket

no grouping at all
multiple groups, rather than just one

group or item?

stem=tulip, tree=cherry tree, vine=cucumber vine

brass=trumpet, woodwind=bassoon, percussion=timpani
(no stringed instruments?)

groups within groups

lazy, hardworking (studies, club, job) students

pets, stray dogs, working dogs (no wild dogs?)
police dogs and therapy dogs into working dogs

mopeds (50cc, 30kph,1人), small (50-125cc, 60kph),
medium (125-400cc, freeways), large (more than 400cc)
different licenses and limits of use

action, SF, comedy, suspense, horror movies

high pitched, low pitched, rhythm, and voice (instrument?)

How could you divide up the natural sciences and mathematics so that they were split up into different categories? Think deeply to find features that will divide them. Could these principles be used to define categories that would divide all academic subjects into about four interesting categories?

Math
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry

numbers, vectors, operations, shapes, size, proportion
sets, substitution, functions, equations, formula
logic, axioms, theorems
probability
abstract concepts, definite answer

Science

theory, experiment, hypothesis, observation

Physics
thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics
astrophysics, geophysics, electromagnetism

objects, waves, measure, laws
force, gravity, weight, energy, power
space and time, motion, speed, acceleration, heat, sound
electricity, magnetism, light, color

Chemistry

atoms, molecules, bonds, structure, formula
combinations, reactions
properties

Biology
anatomy, taxonomy, genetics, embryology, physiology, paleontology

plants, animals, microbes, biodiversity, species
genes, reproduction, growth, development
body, organs, nerves, cells

Mathematics

        Math is the study of numbers and forms--abstract concepts from the real world. They are not real in the sense of being things we can hear and see. We never really see numbers, not even 1, 2, and 3. Numbers are adjectives. We can only see concrete nouns--a dog, one dog, two dogs, and three dogs. Only the symbols for numbers are visible to our eyes. Mathematicians have abstracted numbers and shapes thereby creating an imaginary world where the real has been factored out.

one white dog and two brown dogs make three dogs
(1 dog + 2 dogs) = (1+2) dogs = 3 dogs
1 + 2 = 3 (the dogs are gone)

In the world of mathematics numbers, not dogs, are real. We can manipulate them using operations with well-defined, unique outcomes. When we add 2 and 3 we get 5. When we multiple them we get 6. Mathematicians extrapolate from these patterns to create whole new realms of numbers. They count forward to infinity, then backwards into a world of negative numbers. Then they fill in the spaces between the integers with rational and irrational numbers before heading on to imaginary and complex numbers.

        Shapes are similarly abstracted from a three-dimensional reality. Geometry starts with a few assumptions about lines and planes. It is assumed that they both have less than three dimensions, are perfectly straight, and go on forever. Only three-dimensional approximations actually exist in the real world. Points have no dimensions whatever. When math has discovered certain patterns this idealized world, it projects those patterns out into hyperspaces of four and more dimensions and even argues that fractal structures have fractional dimensions.

        Mathematics is not a natural science. While it may get inspiration from the natural world for the patterns that it explores, it is a completely imaginary world.