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[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 281 points 3 weeks ago

Fake and gay.

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

[-] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 53 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

Engineer here, I can definitely count to 10 tho

0 1 10

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[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 31 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

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

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

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

[-] SippyCup@feddit.nl 56 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 3 weeks ago

Sure OP is a girl. Guy In Real Life

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Newfag.

(sorry! seemed like the appropriate 4chan reply)

[-] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

My thoughts exactly lol

[-] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 138 points 3 weeks 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 64 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

The fun starts when you study quaternions

i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = −1

[-] pticrix@lemmy.ca 29 points 3 weeks ago
[-] HappyFrog 18 points 3 weeks ago
[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 16 points 3 weeks ago

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

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[-] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

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

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[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 81 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

Well done, truly

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[-] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 76 points 3 weeks ago
[-] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 3 weeks 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 74 points 3 weeks ago

Is anyone doing anything tonight?

[-] serenissi@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

no, d..do you have a plan?

[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

Something something distance calls for norm, not just squares.

||i||² + ||1||² = 2

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[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 48 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

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

[-] _g_be@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago
[-] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 28 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

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

[-] CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 7 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

If not fraction, why fraction shaped?

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[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 22 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] edinbruh@feddit.it 20 points 3 weeks ago

Relationship goals

[-] itslilith 18 points 3 weeks ago

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

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[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 weeks ago

They both bottoms.

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago

Gods I wish I had a top to troll like this

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

Science Memes

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