this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Math Humor

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[–] odium@programming.dev 136 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A small part of my soul dies everytime I see "I'm" used that way

[–] moody@lemmings.world 95 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Most folk'll never eat a skunk, but then again some folk'll

[–] odium@programming.dev 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

You probably think you'll never feel bad for saying that, but one of these nights, staying up late, thinking about the things you said and done, you'll.

[–] shundi82@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like Cletus, the slack jawed yokel.

[–] lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some folk'll never lose a toe, but then again some folk'll...

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Whats goin' on over here on this side?

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Here's a Tom Scott video that explains why that doesn't work in English: https://youtu.be/CkZyZFa5qO0?si=TqDXKLcbMF_qfofG

[–] thomas@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As he said, it doesn't work in English ... until enough people does it that it becomes acceptable.

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] null 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago
[–] odium@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Any living language. Don't tell France though.

[–] porkins@sh.itjust.works 54 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Because it’s not .333, it’s .333… or 1/3 and it’s not .999, it’s .999…, which is the same as 1 🫠. Primes and fractions are weird.

[–] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The fun thing is this is just a consequence of how we write numbers. If you used base 12 1/3 would be 0.4. Obviously 0.4 + 0.4 + 0.4 in base 12 is 1.0, so 3 x 0.4 = 1

What's even more fun is that things like 1/5 or 1/10 are recurring decimals in base 12.

[–] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 44 points 1 year ago

You know, this explanation makes it make sense to me a lot more than most of the others I've ever gotten.

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don’t get it. Are you saying the knife is clean?

[–] porkins@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

Yes. The knife is clean if we are cutting exact thirds. As one other user mentioned, base-10 doesn’t allow prime fractions to be conveyed cleanly, so we use repeating decimals to imply that it is a fraction.

[–] ieightpi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Either we live in a world where .333 is correct or we live in a world where knives come out clean when cutting a cake. We can't have both

[–] lud@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I will take the world with clean knives any day.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

So that's a no on the infinite cake universe?

Lame.

[–] Caitlynn@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a flaw in how we decribe our numbers

[–] myslsl@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It's not even really a flaw. Just a property. In some sense we've lost the property of uniqueness of decimal representations of numbers that we had with other sets of numbers like integers. In another sense we gain alternate representations for our numbers that may be preferrable (for example 1=1.000... but also 1=0.999...).

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Flaw is a bit harsh. Periodic, infinite decimals happen because the denominator is not a multiple of the prime factors of the base and thus will exist in any base.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Infinity is not a number and even if you would use it as a base, you couldn't represent anything other than infinity in a meaningful way.

Infinity^0 is indeterminate and infinity^x with x>0 is exactly infinity.

[–] communistcapy@lemmy.sdf.org 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] funnystuff97@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a strange language we've.

[–] GregorTacTac@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did you watch tom scott's video on this?Its's really good.

[–] funnystuff97@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] GregorTacTac@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

OK, I've to go now.

[–] elxeno@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago
[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

This is actually a beautiful and concrete proof that 0.9... is equal to 1. Beautiful fuckery.

[–] TonyToniToneOfficial@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

I hate this

[–] 31415926535@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

That might be a good description of xeno's paradox

[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The main piece is what I'm calling all cakes that are not whole from now on

Edit - this got me thinking, once you've cut the first 0.333 piece and then you split the rest of the main piece in 2, who is the next side piece and who continues to hold the title of the main piece?

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Main piece is the one that stays on the tray.

[–] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Which one is the power bottom?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

This goes along well with the fact that everything is cake.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Spelling, though? Not so much.

[–] lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

No dude, it's a math joke. MATH.