this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
384 points (97.3% liked)

Science Memes

17736 readers
1823 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Kraiden@piefed.social 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

madness. How am I supposed to know if 36 = 36 or 36 = 8?

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Numbers are all made up stuff, and they're all the same. Here, lemme prove it; let a=b, and...

a² = ab             // multiplying both sides by "a"
2a² = a²+ab         // adding a² to both sides
2a²-2ab = a²-ab     // subtracting 2ab from both sides
2(a²-ab) = 1(a²-ab) // isolating (a²-ab)
2 = 1               // dividing both sides by (a²-ab)

From there you can prove any number is any number. 36=36 or 36=8 or 36=π.

the trickIf a=b, you can't divide both sides by (a²-ab), because it's a division by zero.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Lots of zeros in that due to a=b (before looking at the spoiler text)

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 17 hours ago

Bingo. The whole "a=b" is just a distraction to hide it, otherwise as soon as you hit the third step you cancel both out, and end with 0=0.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Do you mean 36 = 18 there? Otherwise, I'm very confused. 😅

[–] mhi@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

Doesn't make a difference as 18 = 8

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Because the things like 3a are only for variables, not numbers.