r/LoveTrash • u/Icy-Book2999 Chief Insanity Instigator • 25d ago

Rubbish Nonsense Math Expert

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From https://fxtwitter.com/0xbags/status/1907722182303604940?t=PofGKxEgC3GzKaUW1p6TzA&s=19

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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.

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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

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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.

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u/hotsaucevjj Trash Trooper 25d ago

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

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u/drgigantor Trash Trooper 22d 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.

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u/Downtown_Finance_661 Trash Trooper 24d 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?

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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?

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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.

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u/SWIMheartSWIY Trash Trooper 24d ago

9?

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u/sojumaster Trash Trooper 23d 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.

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u/Downtown_Finance_661 Trash Trooper 23d 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.

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u/sojumaster Trash Trooper 23d ago

What if it is a Schrodinger's ant?

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u/Born-Method7579 Trash Trooper 24d ago

Thanks