this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
264 points (96.2% liked)

Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

Not my experience as an actuarie. In college all the models and examples you learn are based on the platonic insurance company where everything works perfectly. In the real life, everything is a mess and the models hardly work and you had to crack workarounds for everything.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

looks like graph theory to me

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Some of it looks like topology. The curvy horizontal lines turning into curvy vertical lines are symbols relating to the Kauffman bracket, which belongs to knot theory.

https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Kauffman_bracket_polynomial

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think the bottom one may be some sort of combinatorics

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

You think correctly, extremal

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago

I really like the top right of the bottom blackboard...

"If we think very hard about it and break the fundamentals of math, logic and everything else we know about the universe, down into the most crucial and elemental components we may be tempted to come to the conclusion that 5 is - maybe somewhat simplified - just five 1s added together, basically."

I'm sure that there's probably more going on here... maybe...

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

5 = 5 = 4 + 1 = 3 + 2 = 3 + 1 + 1 = 2 + 2 + 1 = 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1

Riveting stuff

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

5 = 5
= 4 + 1
= 3 + 2
= 3 + 1 + 1
= 2 + 2 + 1
= 2 + 1 + 1 + 1
= 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1

Riveting stuff

Probably how you wanted your comment to look.

Markdown doesn't recognize a new line that isn't either double (for a full paragraph break), or preceded by a double space or a \.
Markdown is a stupid design, in my opinion. Can't even write \ without actually writing \\.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I find it interesting that PieFed renders that comment correctly - there seems to be a fundamental difference in how it renders markdown.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Markdown isn’t a set standard so the rules are made up and rendering is all willy-nilly

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I really want to learn this stuff. Its looks so much like magic

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

More like a game. Advance in math learning new game rules and mechanics, that let you explore more of the game space.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

So Maths is just like Dark Souls? You should put that on the box.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

It used to get recommended all over Stack Overflow, but I did really love reading Göedel Escher Bach. That book taught me to see math as a game or, equivalently, as purely exercises in shuffling symbols around, with intent.

That shift in outlook really unlocked the fun in math for me. I learned about category theory through Haskell shortly after, and got into number systems and the surreal numbers and quaternions after that. There's so much neat math out there that the wall of calculus and linear alg really imposes right before all the good stuff.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say it's magic. It's more like understanding how the forces that hold together our universe, and how we can harness these forces for our own gain.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Arthur C Clarke would like a word.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I have never heard of him before. I recognize my comment isn't unique, except in perhaps phrasing. Has Clarke said something within the same vein?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws

The third law is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

I merely meant that the beauty of mathematics and natural science was a form of magic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, with the people who keep misusing his quotes

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago

No, read more Clarke

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I wasn't sure if Feynman Diagrams.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Although a second look I agree they don't look right for that. Guess I should have taken more graph theory modules.