“To trip up” means “to cause to stumble or make an error”. It’s also short for triple-up-arrow. Putting a 3^^^3 into an argument often trips up reasoning, and that’s the main reason people use that number.
(Apparently this is less intuitive than I thought; MrMind pointed out a third interpretation, which I hadn’t thought of before.)
Can I get a joke-explainer?
My guess: “trip” as an abbreviation of “triple” but also in the sense of an acid trip, given the mind-blowingly large quantity referred to.
“To trip up” means “to cause to stumble or make an error”. It’s also short for triple-up-arrow. Putting a 3^^^3 into an argument often trips up reasoning, and that’s the main reason people use that number.
(Apparently this is less intuitive than I thought; MrMind pointed out a third interpretation, which I hadn’t thought of before.)
Oh haha, I see. I didn’t make the connection to tripping up arguments (nor did MrMind’s acid trip interpretation occur to me). Thanks!