Also mathematicians: here’s this cool new thing, I called it “infinitesimal”
near zero
Submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/6a27361e-5755-4460-ab83-e5a4bd0af9ee.jpeg
Comments
rockerface@lemm.ee 7 months ago
henfredemars@infosec.pub 7 months ago
In computer engineering we have positive and negative zero.
Gladaed@feddit.de 7 months ago
Also in Math.
marcos@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Unknowingly from the GP, that’s where CE got it from.
Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
What algebra uses negative 0?
PlexSheep@infosec.pub 7 months ago
What do you mean? In two’s complement, there is only one zero.
yetAnotherUser@feddit.de 7 months ago
IEEE 754 floating point numbers have a signed bit at the front, causing +0 and -0 to exist.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 7 months ago
Specifically I was referring to standard float representation which permits signed zeros. However, other comments provide some interesting examples also.
sus@programming.dev 7 months ago
floats
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 7 months ago
And, as a mathematician who has been coding a library to create scaled geometric graphics for his paper, I hate -0.0.
Seriously, I run every number where sign determines action through a function I call “fix_zero” just because tiny tiny rounding errors pile up in floats, even is numpy.
mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
Limit x->0 { x } = 0 ? Noway
pumpkinseedoil@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Wait do you actually say “limit” instead of “limes” in English?
something_random_tho@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yes, as in “Why can’t I hold all these limits?”
mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
I usually uses lim
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
Yes.
ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 7 months ago
Yeah, I was gonna say... Calculus is all about saying it's infinitely approaching zero so let's assume it is zero.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
i mean, mathematically speaking, every number that isn’t zero, is further away from zero, than the number before it.
So there is a point to the statement of “approaching zero” as well “near zero” and “about zero” since 100 probably isn’t about zero.
Also CS nerds would like to fight you about floating point values.
cucumber_sandwich@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Whoa slow down there buddy. Proposing numbers before numbers like they are a given.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
as far as we can tell, mathematically, they are a given, and they never stop.
I’ll wait for you to find the end of pi.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 7 months ago
“small but non-zero” is one of my favorite phrases 😅
01101000_01101001@mander.xyz 7 months ago
I like Paul Erdős’s usage if “epsilon” to refer to children
ignotum@lemmy.world 7 months ago
sin(x) ~= 0sus@programming.dev 7 months ago
cosmologists: sin(x) ~= 10
Breve@pawb.social 7 months ago
The infinitesimal has entered the chat.
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 7 months ago
lets ignore the higher order terms for now. five lines below look at this beautiful exact equality that we got
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 7 months ago
What about large values of zero?
berryjam@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Trivial
Zerush@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
~ ∞
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer are led into a long room. At the other end stands a beautiful naked woman. “When I ring this bell,” she says" you may cross half the space between us. When I ring the bell again, you may again cross half the space between us." Both the mathematician and physicist groan and wander off. “Ah, it’s Zeno’s paradox, we can never actually reach her.” The engineer, waiting for the bell, says “I think I can get close enough.”
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
why is there a naked woman?
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
For the joke to work.
NegativeInf@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Because humanity has no other desires between math and tits apparently.
echolalia@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Only straight men are mathematicians, physicists and engineers. This is why the joke is framed this way.
See: responses from OP, valiantly defending his choice to “piss people off”, instead of noticing the joke is just yet another reminder that men are default.
After all, sexism is over, and STEM isn’t hostile to women/non-heteronormative people. It’s all in our head.
kaffiene@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sexism, obvs