The most startling problem is the incorrect use of the Boolean OR operation, the simplest of all. It is taught in kindergarten that the search for A OR B cannot produce less results than the higher found for A or B. Still, the query aboulia produces 26 items, abulia yields 40, but aboulia OR abulia produces only 35. Neither can a search for A OR B produce more hits than the sum of the hits found for A and B together at most. But this is what happens as illustrated by this simple search: for books with the word arrogance in the title. It finds 2 books. The search for books with the word arrogant in the title finds 6 documents. (Minutes earlier the software produced 8 hits, and such disappearances add an additional dimension to the confusion). The search for books with arrogant OR arrogance in the title yields 13 books.

oy. it looks like google book search has trouble with simple boolean operators.

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