452
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] benignintervention@lemmy.world 77 points 1 month ago

I found math in physics to have this really fun duality of "these are rigorous rules that must be followed" and "if we make a set of edge case assumptions, we can fit the square peg in the round hole"

Also I will always treat the derivative operator as a fraction

[-] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 61 points 1 month ago

2+2 = 5

…for sufficiently large values of 2

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 23 points 1 month ago

i was in a math class once where a physics major treated a particular variable as one because at csmic scale the value of the variable basically doesn't matter. the math professor both was and wasn't amused

[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago
[-] jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago

Statistician: 1+1=sqrt(2)

[-] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 month ago

Computer science: 2+2=4 (for integers at least; try this with floating point numbers at your own peril, you absolute fool)

[-] callyral@pawb.social 6 points 1 month ago

0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004

[-] socsa@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Freshmen engineer: wow floating point numbers are great.

Senior engineer: actually the distribution of floating point errors is mindfuck.

Professional engineer: the mean error for all pairwaise 64 bit floating point operations is smaller than the Planck constant.

comparing floats for exact equality should be illegal, IMO

[-] WR5@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I mean as an engineer, this should actually be 2+2=4 +/-1.

[-] bhamlin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Found the engineer

[-] bhamlin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I always chafed at that.

"Here are these rigid rules you must use and follow."

"How did we get these rules?"

"By ignoring others."

[-] sepi@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

is this how Brian Greene was born?

this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
452 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

16069 readers
1393 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS