this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 month ago (4 children)

the point isn't to prove that the triangle is a triangle it's to prove that the system of mathematics you made up actually works

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

hey! get out of here with your math!!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Commie nerds

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Help! He's logicing all over us!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Until you prove that you can't prove that the system you made up works.

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

Nobody is practically concerned with the "incompleteness" aspect of Gödel's theorems. The unprovable statements are so pathological/contrived that it doesn't appear to suggest any practical statement might be unprovable. Consistency is obviously more important. Sufficiently weak systems may also not be limited by the incompleteness theorems, i.e. they can be proved both complete and consistent.

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

Oh, what if the Riemann hypothesis is such a statement then? Or any other mathematical statement. We may not have any use for them now, but as with all things math, they are sometimes useful somewhere unexpected.

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

It's extremely unlikely given the pathological nature of all known unprovable statements. And those are useless, even to mathematicians.

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

I think the statement "this system is consistent" is a practical statement that is unprovable in a sufficiently powerful consistent system.

Can you help me understand the tone of your text? To me it sounds kinda hostile as if what you said is some kind of gotcha.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Just explaining that the limitations of Gödel's theorems are mostly formal in nature. If they are applicable, the more likely case of incompleteness (as opposed to inconsistency) is not really a problem.

[–] Honytawk 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

No, see Gödels Incompleteness theorem

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

It's very counter intuitive. As the other commenter suggested I was referring to Gödel and his incompleteness theorem.

Actually if the system you made up doesn't work it would be possible to prove that it does inside that system as you can prove anything inside a system that doesn't work.

That is why my comment is not entirely accurate it should actually be: Until you prove that if the system works you can't prove that the system works.

Can you spot the difference in the logic here?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

You just reminded me of having to prove that math signs work and do what they do from basic axioms to integers and rational numbers using logical proofs... Damn that was interesting but SO tedious...

[–] Cethin 1 points 1 month ago

Well, at that level I think it's more to show you know how to prove it. You're working under the assumption the axioms of the system you've been told work.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You can tell it's a triangle because of the way it is.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You have no idea how much I need it friend. Now...can I pet that dawg??

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

I feel that brother. Stay strong

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That's pretty neat!

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

that won't work for yoda, though. for him, there is no triangle. there's just doangle or donotangle.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

How have I not heard this before 😆

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

I nearly failed geometry because I didn't understand what my instructor wanted from me.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Yes but what if one side is so slightly curved that it's invisible to the naked eye? Then your total angles would be 179.99 degrees and it's not a triangle.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Non-Euclidian horrors beyond comprehension

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Commonly known as reality

[–] Honytawk 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But isn't a curve just many angles next to one another?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, but infinitely many.

[–] Cethin 1 points 1 month ago

From a calculus perspective, you may be able to define it as infinitely many angles infinitely close to one another, but I don't think that'd be a particularly good definition.

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

Even philosophy 101 can give you a ton of reasons why looking at it just isn't enough

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Especially Philosophy 101

[–] Honytawk 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

How Can Triangles Be Real If Our Eyes Aren't Real?

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

"Just look at it". Visual proofs are not proofs. They're demonstrations. For a species that is so easily fooled by things we see, visualization cannot be taken as rigorous proof.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

... are visual and therefore no proof.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

"If we can't prove these two triangles are similar while not being congruent, the world is doomed."

"Oh my god. We need a 10th grader with at least a B-average, stat!"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

LoL, actual.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I loved geometry. It made algebra make sense. Plus I had a really awesome geometry teacher. He looked like Shel Silverstein and was super pumped every day to teach math.

[–] Cethin 3 points 1 month ago

I loved geometry. It's the class where I first got experience programming. I just sat in class programming stuff on my calculator not really paying attention. I did fine in the class luckily.

Totally unrelated, but I (30 yo) recently realized I'm almost certainly ADHD. There definitely weren't any identifiable signs before that people should have noticed...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

In one of my last CS classes, we did proofs and would use "by observation" for this kind of thing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Equilateral triangle. All three sides are equal length and it has three interior angles that add up to exactly 180 degrees.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don't believe in geometry

I'm 6'5

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