MMM (Mostly Maths and Memes)

Maths student - 2nd year of Uni I love maths and puns

[easy-as-01-10-11]

I am not stressed about this exam which is bad because I can't force my brain to revise but also I want to write a thing about mathematicians and blackboards because I have feelings about it. I'm going to schedule this post for tomorrow and hope that impulse is still there

[uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

[easy-as-01-10-11]

Says a lot about one of my professors that the material he handed out is so bad i would rather look at random bits of notes my classmates sent on the group chat

[mlmanakin]

it’s been said before and it will be said again but i’m begging you all nicely to restrain yourselves from being so casually aggressive and rude and obnoxious in the tags & reblogs of a complete stranger’s posts. no one wants to know that you hate [tv show that op giffed]. no one wants to know that you hate [character that op drew]. no one wants to hear you being ugly and negative for no reason. say what you want to say in your own post. don’t hit the reblog button. blacklist relevant tags. unfollow or block relevant accounts. log out. shut down. get help.

[missmoodybear]

[as-if-and-only-if]

the universal math experience in @glittervial’s tags

[necessary-disorder]

[easy-as-01-10-11]

Today's physics problem:

Assume you have a physics spoken exam at 10am, but the professor shows up at 11am; then, after examining two people, takes a long break from 12 to 2.30pm.

Measure how unlucky you would have to be the third student in the list, assuming all walls you could possibly bang your head on to be fixed and without friction.

[easy-as-01-10-11]

If you see someone post some really bad maths do you:

1) do nothing

2) ask if they would like you to explain

3) explain anyways

4) ???

[the-real-numbers-deactivated202]

New proof by contradiction template

[unnonexistence]

a historical addition:

[sorryitstaken]

sqrt(2) is an irrational number that can not be represented as a fraction of whole numbers, so your initial assumption is wrong and all of this is bad math.

[the-real-numbers-deactivated202]

[di--es---can-ic-ul-ar--es]

Normie pleb question: how does one know when the WLOG works and when it doesnt? It just seems random to me

[the-real-numbers-deactivated202]

Sometimes I use WLOG when a basic simplifying fact is true and I can't add it to the proof due to space or time constraints/ can't be fucked to write it out. Basically it's assumed that the reader should be able to guess why it's true.

[girlcaligula]

also sadly being a law student will make you start every answer to every question with "it depends" because there are no certainties in law and there are no certainties in life either

[math-memes]

[rox-and-prose]

I spent more time than I would like to admit trying to figure out if this was loss

[cipheramnesia]

I don't know enough about math to be sure it's not.

[cipheramnesia]

Sources rebloggjng this from me are suggesting it's probably not Loss, although in a cosmic sense I feel as if I've lost regardless.

[hurricane-euler]

Random question that’s bugging me: how many numbers [out of 81] does it take to uniquely identify a sudoku?

[easy-as-01-10-11]

Depends on the sudoku and on which numbers.

You could technically find a sudoku with 87/91 numbers filled which still has 2 possible solutions, and I think I read somewhere that you can make a sudoku with 17/81 numbers filled that has a unique solution

[ancient-rome-au]

the letters of the Greek Alphabet, ranked according to a someone who uses them for math but doesn’t know Greek

[feralpidgeon-deactivated2020011]

This is the pride flag for Gays who can do math

[easy-as-01-10-11]

I love the weird names we give numbers and theorems in maths but opening my theoretical informatics slides and reading stuff like "the Rice-Shapiro theorem" and "curryfication" is like opening a window and getting hit in the face by a bird

[easy-as-01-10-11]

Do you ever read something scientific-sounding and go "that doesn't sound right and I *wish* I knew enough to dispute it (or understand it)"

[easy-as-01-10-11]

Professor: "This is a norm. You can all see this is a norm. But we haven't proven it is a norm yet. So I'm going to call it a prison. We will then prove this prison is a norm"

I spent the last 20minutes stupidly thinking about a vector-space-to-prison pipeline in math society I hate AND love my brain sometimes

[math-memes]

[unknought]

fields of mathematics

number theory: The Queen of Mathematics, in that it takes a lot from other fields and provides little in return, and people are weirdly sentimental about it.

combinatorics: Somehow simultaneously the kind of people who get really excited about Martin Gardner puzzles and very serious no-nonsense types who don’t care about understanding why something is true as long as they can prove that it’s true.

algebraic geometry: Here’s an interesting metaphor, and here’s several thousand pages of work fleshing it out.

differential geometry: There’s a lot of really cool stuff built on top of a lot of boring technical details, but they frequently fill entire textbooks or courses full of just the boring stuff, and they seem to think students will find this interesting in itself rather than as a necessary prerequisite to something better. So there’s definitely something wrong with them.

category theory: They don’t really seem to understand that the point of generalizing a result is so that you can apply it to other situations.

differential equations: physicists

real analysis: What if we took the most boring parts of a proof and just spent all our time studying those?

point-set topology: See real analysis, but less relevant to the real world.

complex analysis: Sorcery. I thought it seemed like sorcery because I didn’t know much about it, but then I learned more, and now the stuff I learned just seems like sorcery that I know how to do.

algebraic topology: Some of them are part of a conspiracy with category theorists to take over mathematics. I’m pretty sure that most algebraic topologists aren’t involved in that, but I don’t really know what else they’re up to.

functional analysis: Like real analysis but with category theorists’ generalization fetish.

group theory: Probably masochists? It’s hard to imagine how else someone could be motivated to read a thousand-page paper, let alone write one.

operator algebras: Seems cool but I can’t understand a word of it, so I can’t be sure they’re not just bullshitting the whole thing.

commutative/homological algebra: Diagram chases are of the devil, and these people are his worshipers.