MATH LESSON: Numbers and purity

Pure mathematics often involves numbers. Pure mathematicians, unlike applied mathematicians, generally do not care where the numbers came from, or whether they correspond to anything that is (in the non-mathematics sense) real. A September 8, 2004 Newsweek report quotes a US government official about the use of pure math:

“It was meaningless when they said two thirds and it?s meaningless when they said three fourths,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. ?This sounds like it was pulled out of somebody?s orifice.?

A July 14, 2007 TPM report spotlights a (presumably different) government official who often uses pure math:

“That organization was smashed. Three-quarters of its leadership — or, I guess, two-thirds of its leadership has either been killed or captured.”