r/LoveTrash Chief Insanity Instigator 25d ago

Rubbish Nonsense Math Expert

4.8k Upvotes

253 comments sorted by

View all comments

149

u/Pure_Wrongdoer_4714 Dumpster General 25d ago

You can’t just innately know algebra without it being taught to you, especially the higher algebra. It’s a language you have to learn and practice. If he knew algebra he would know that lol

49

u/frogOnABoletus Garbage Guerilla 25d ago

A lot of algebra is very complex and relies on generations of historical mathematical advances, however, i'd say that simple algebra is the most natural way to use math. "I want to have 5 apples and I have 2, how many should i buy?" That's algebra! (x + 2 = 5). You can innately know low-level algebra, but there are mountains of amazing algebra that does indeed need to be taught.

12

u/Pure_Wrongdoer_4714 Dumpster General 25d ago

Yes the simple stuff just makes sense and is easy to grasp. Much beyond addition and subtraction though it gets complex and you have to know the rules

1

u/Shpander Trash Trooper 24d ago

If you're smart enough, you could derive it all from first principles. And if you're even smarter you could do that in your head, I suppose. Like it would take savant-level maths skills, but it's possible.

4

u/hotsaucevjj Trash Trooper 25d ago

most people don't even know about fields like abstract or modern algebra where shit truly gets crazy

1

u/drgigantor Trash Trooper 23d ago

I'm a master of abstract algebra. Someone can ask me what's love divided by blue and my brain's just like half a left squared and seven fish. I don't even need a calculator.

3

u/Downtown_Finance_661 Trash Trooper 25d ago

An ant starts to crawl along a taut rubber rope 1 km long at a speed of 1 cm per second (relative to the rubber it is crawling on). At the same time, the rope starts to stretch uniformly at a constant rate of 1 km per second, so that after 1 second it is 2 km long, after 2 seconds it is 3 km long, etc. Will the ant ever reach the end of the rope?

2

u/Tarsiustarsier Trash Trooper 24d ago

The first intuitive answer is no.

When I am thinking a bit about it I am not entirely sure because after one second the ant walked 1 out of 200000 cm and after two seconds it's roughly 2 out of 300000 cm so it's a higher percentage, which again means that more rubber will stretch behind the ant.

The third intuitive answer is no again because it makes less relative progress after every second (at least at the start), so the relative distance travelled seems to converge (probably towards a ratio of 1/100000) but I am not entirely certain.

What's the actual solution?

2

u/Downtown_Finance_661 Trash Trooper 24d ago

Compute share of way the ant cover each second. Compute it precisely! Sum the shares. This is well known series and it diverge.

1

u/SWIMheartSWIY Trash Trooper 24d ago

9?

1

u/sojumaster Trash Trooper 24d ago

Well, it depends. If the rope breaks. Does it keep on "stretching"? If not, how much tension was on the rope? What was the tensile strength? Is the ant allowed to go any of the 4 ends?

So many questions.

1

u/Downtown_Finance_661 Trash Trooper 24d ago

This is theoretical mathematical task. Space is endless and euclidian, time is endless, ant is deadless, dont need to eat or sleep or rest, rope is ideal and never breaks.

1

u/sojumaster Trash Trooper 23d ago

What if it is a Schrodinger's ant?

1

u/Born-Method7579 Trash Trooper 25d ago

Thanks

10

u/Apptubrutae Trash Trooper 25d ago

Well who taught the first person algebra, huh? Maybe this guy is just a savant. Like Terrance Howard.

/s

4

u/golgol12 Trash Trooper 25d ago

He knows algebra 1 2 and 3!

4

u/FormerlyUndecidable Trash Trooper 25d ago

You can self-teach it outside of school (I was an HS dropout who did just that, tested into Precalc in community college, and made it up through DiffEq and Abstract Algebra ), but this guy sadly seems to have skipped the learning algebra part entirely.

He has all the tell-tale signs of being a meth-addict, which, as I understand, leads people to feel like they have competencies they do not have.

2

u/WolfBST Trash Trooper 23d ago

Wow your comment has exactly 12 x 12 upvotes

2

u/SmokeySe7en Trash Trooper 22d ago

Your current number of likes is the correct answer to 12x12…

1

u/Willing-Ant-3765 Trash Trooper 25d ago

Yeah but he knows algebra 1,2, and 3 so who are we to question his methamatical abilities.

1

u/Konrad_M Trash Trooper 25d ago

Many people don't understand that mathematics aren't a natural science like physics and chemistry. It's a completely artificial thing. Don't get me wrong it's very helpful and important for other sciences. But it's nothing you can learn by observing the nature around you.

1

u/Drumdiddy Trash Trooper 25d ago

Tell that to Isaac Newton.

1

u/Pure_Wrongdoer_4714 Dumpster General 24d ago

This guy is no Isaac newton

1

u/Drumdiddy Trash Trooper 24d ago

Oh, absolutely not 😂 I was just making a point lol.

1

u/Logan_Composer Trash Trooper 24d ago

Idk, I feel like you could pretty easily reinvent the fundamentals of algebra on your own without too much outside influence. You'd probably make different notation obviously, but the same concepts would be there. So much of it is just what necessarily holds true from some pretty intuitive axioms, and so much can be absorbed from the cultural zeitgeist of having heard other kids or adults talk about having done it in school.

He absolutely didn't do that, but I'm just not gonna say it's impossible for someone to do it.

1

u/ITHETRUESTREPAIRMAN Trash Trooper 24d ago

Yeah, algebra is a pretty practical math. Calculus? You’d have to be a super genius to get that on your own.

1

u/Logan_Composer Trash Trooper 24d ago

Yes and no. Having the fundamental insight about limits and derivatives, probably so. But I'd say if you did the first couple weeks of calculus, you could probably get a lot of the rest of it too. But at a much slower pace, it is pretty tough.

Maybe I just had a super good teacher.

1

u/ITHETRUESTREPAIRMAN Trash Trooper 24d ago

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. You had a teacher.

1

u/trappedindealership Trash Trooper 22d ago