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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: March 22nd, 2025

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  • skisnow@lemmy.catomemes@lemmy.worldSome things don't change
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    1 month ago

    The fact that there’s no buckets means that you can’t then usefully draw any further conclusions about the ratio of buckets to things. In your first two examples we can take the results and use them to work out further things like how much might the buckets weigh, what happens if we add more buckets or more things, etc.

    In the divide by zero answer, we know nothing about the buckets, and the number of things becomes meaningless. But worse of all is that it’s easy to hide this from the unwary, which is why you occasionally see “proofs” online that 1=2, which rely on hiding divide-by-zero operations behind some sneaky algebra.

    When we say we “can’t” divide by zero, we mean ok you can divide by zero, but you’ll get a useless answer that leaves you at a mathematical dead end. Infinity isn’t reversible, or even strictly equal to itself.




  • skisnow@lemmy.catomemes@lemmy.worldTotal lie
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    1 month ago

    There’s a certain amount of discourse in KotH fandom around exactly how all four childhood friends came to buy houses on The Alley behind Rainey Street. Apparently the canon is hazy and inconsistent, though I can’t remember the details.







  • skisnow@lemmy.catomemes@lemmy.worldEngineering decisions
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    2 months ago

    Your life can be so much better if you get over the notion of having to own things. Almost every luxury out there can be enjoyed without having to own it, as long as you’re able to discard the consumerist propaganda that you’ve not enjoyed it properly unless you can take it home.




  • skisnow@lemmy.catomemes@lemmy.worldNot fair
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    2 months ago

    I got into a long debate with someone who wouldn’t accept my claim that pi is 3.

    My reasoning was that 3 is accurate to the number of decimal places it’s quoted to, which is all you ever can say of any given value of pi. Like, pi might not be exactly 3, but it’s not 3.14159265358979323846 either, because both values still have infinity digits missing.