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[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 281 points 2 months ago

Fake and gay.

No way the engineer corrects the mathematician for using j instead of i.

[-] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 53 points 2 months ago

As an engineer I fully agree. Engineers¹ aren't even able to do basic arithmetics. I even cannot count to 10.

¹ Except maybe Electrical engineers. They seem to be quite smart.

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 44 points 2 months ago

Engineer here, I can definitely count to 10 tho

0 1 10

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[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 31 points 2 months ago

Electrical engineers are the ones that use j though (because i is used for current)

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[-] thomasloven@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

10? That’s the name some put to 1e1, right?

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Except maybe Electrical engineers.

Yup, I can count just fine to the 10th number in a zero-indexed counting system: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white.

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[-] Hoimo@ani.social 38 points 2 months ago

How do we know it's gay though? OP could be a girl (male)

[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 56 points 2 months ago

Because it's 4chan. And there are no women on the Internet on 4chan

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 months ago

Sure OP is a girl. Guy In Real Life

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Newfag.

(sorry! seemed like the appropriate 4chan reply)

[-] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 months ago

Right? They got that shit backwards. Op is a fraud. i is used in pure math, j is used in engineering.

[-] kogasa@programming.dev 19 points 2 months ago

The mathematician also used "operative" instead of, uh, something else, and "associative" instead of "commutative"

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[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago

My thoughts exactly lol

[-] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 138 points 2 months ago

Wait bottom mathematican is using j=√-1 instead of i and not the engineer? Because I'm EE gang, and all my homies use j.

[-] GandalfTheDumb@lemmy.world 65 points 2 months ago

That part also got me really confused. All the mathematicans I know use i while engineers use i or j depending on the kind of engineer. I've never seen a Pikachu engineer using anything other than j.

[-] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 months ago

Pikachu engineer

That's a fucking favorite now. Keeping that in my back pocket.

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[-] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 2 months ago

The fun starts when you study quaternions

i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = −1

[-] pticrix@lemmy.ca 29 points 2 months ago
[-] HappyFrog 18 points 2 months ago
[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 16 points 2 months ago

(...I think you may have gotten whooshed...)

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[-] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It gets worse actually. You can define a number system using any power of 2 amount of i-like units in a similar relationship to quaternions using the Cayley-Dickson construction

Fascinatingly, you lose some property of the algebra at each step. Quaternions aren't commutative: ABC != CBA. Octonians aren't associative: (AB)C != A(BC). Once you get into 16 i's with subscripts, it really gets crazy.

(Also, I just got the joke. Damnit @HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone your serious answer threw me off!)

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[-] bisby@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I agree. Clearly i is current. What is this i=√-1 nonsense.

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[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 81 points 2 months ago
[-] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Well done, truly

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[-] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 76 points 2 months ago
[-] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 months ago

I’m a mechanical engineering student with a math minor and I’m a switch so yeah, I’d take either side of this

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 75 points 2 months ago

Is anyone doing anything tonight?

[-] serenissi@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

no, d..do you have a plan?

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Something something distance calls for norm, not just squares.

||i||² + ||1||² = 2

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[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 48 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

operative?

Also mathematicians use i for imaginary, engineers use j. The story does not add up. I have never seen a single mathematician use j for imaginary.

[-] sartalon@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

As an EE, I used both. Def not a mathematician though. Fuck that, I just plug variables into programs now.

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[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 2 months ago

This is the kind of brat I can get behind. 😏

[-] _g_be@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago
[-] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 28 points 2 months ago

As a physicist I can't understand why would anyone complain about a +jb or $\int dx f(x)$. Probably because we don't fuck

[-] laserm@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

Why would a mathematician use j for imaginary numbers and why would engineer be mad at them?

[-] CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

The only thing I can think of is that the OP studied electrical engineering at some point. But it's a 4chan story so probably fake anyway.

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[-] prex@aussie.zone 10 points 2 months ago

I think it might be the wrong way around: Engineers like to use j for imaginary numbers because i is needed for current.

[-] AlboTheGuy@feddit.nl 8 points 2 months ago

Mathematicians are taught to be elastic with notation, because they tend to be taught many different interpretations of the same theory.

On the other hand engineers use more strict and consistent notation, their classes have a more practical approach.

Using the same notation makes it faster to read and apply math, a more agile approach helps with learning new theories and approaches and with being creative.

[-] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

I think rather d/dx is the operator. You apply it to an expression to bind free occurrences of x in that expression. For example, dx²/dx is best understood as d/dx (x²). The notation would be clear if you implement calculus in a program.

[-] bhamlin@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

If not fraction, why fraction shaped?

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[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 22 points 2 months ago

I have no idea what they're talking about, but I do love a happy ending.

[-] edinbruh@feddit.it 20 points 2 months ago

Relationship goals

[-] itslilith 18 points 2 months ago

$\int dx f(x)$ is standard notation for physicists

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[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 months ago

They both bottoms.

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Hum... I don't think the integral "operator" applies by multiplication.

You can put the dx at the beginning of the integral, but not before it.

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[-] djsoren19 7 points 2 months ago

Gods I wish I had a top to troll like this

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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
788 points (100.0% liked)

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