this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
0 points (NaN% liked)

Math Memes

1506 readers
1 users here now

Memes related to mathematics.

Rules:
1: Memes must be related to mathematics in some way.
2: No bigotry of any kind.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

The sum approximates the integral.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The top symbol, Σ (uppercase Sigma), is used in math to denote a sum of a list of values. There is clear separation between the values in the list: two adjacent items in the list have no item in between them.

The bottom symbol, ∫ (long s), denotes an integral, which is kind of a sum over a continuous function. Any two different points of the function, no matter how close they are to each other, will have infinitely many points in between them.

For pedants: the function values don't have to be continuous, but the range of x over which the integral runs does have to be continuous. I regret nothing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh cool, thanks. So is this like an anti-aliasing joke or something? Like "if you discretize a small number of pixels, Rick Astley will appear pixelated, but if you interpolate between them, the image will appear clearer?"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Not quite, I think it means the source material is continuous instead of discrete. No interpolation.

But honestly at this point we're reading too much into it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You can integrate over arbitrary domains, not even the range needs to be continuous. You often see integrals not written as \int_a^b, but instead as \int_C where C is just a set

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I still regret nothing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago