Hi and welcome back to Get Fit Guy. This is Kevin Dunn.

This week I'm going to start with a modus penance that I made for you to illustrate to today's argument.

A modus penance being a way in propositional logic that we can infer an argument, it starts with premises

and leads to a conclusion. 10,000 steps a day is the right number of steps for health. I walk 10,000

steps a day, therefore I am healthy. Now, as far as an argument goes, this is actually how most people operate.

They see that number, then go out and splash some cash on a Fitbit, Wook Band, Apple Watch,

Garmin, or whatever other brand of wearable fitness tracker and go and get their 10,000 steps a day.

As long you've hit that benchmark, you're good.

But as an argument, this is actually invalid.

Because for an argument to be valid in formal logic,

the premises have to be true and lead to a conclusion, which is true.

Now, there are many people out there who are doing 10,000 steps a day or more who are unhealthy.

So that means we have a false conclusion. So one of the premises is false. Now, if you are

wearing a tracker, you can see how many steps you've made.

So the second premise, I walk 10,000 steps a day, is true.

So it has to be that the first premise, 10,000 steps a day is the right number of steps for health, is in fact false.

False premises lead to false conclusions and make for invalid arguments. I love propositional logic. So if this premise is false

and the 10,000 steps a day argument is invalid, how unearth did it come to be such a widely held

belief? Well, like many of the things that we hold so dear, it was the result of viral

marketing. Not based in any science whatsoever. In 1964, the Olympics were being held in Tokyo.

And there was a bit of an obesity problem in Japan.

And as a result, there was a big push for awareness around fitness at that time.

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