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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: February 1st, 2024

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  • qjkxbmwvzto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneTriangle rule
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    7 hours ago

    That almost makes sense, but pi radians = 180°

    Right, a triangle “has 180deg,” like I said.

    in which case π÷n is infinitesimally small. In other words, substituting infinity for n would be incalculable

    That’s not how limits work. Substitution is not the same as taking the limit.

    infinite and infinitesimal numbers are impossible to express rationally.

    That’s not true at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1/2_%2B_1/4_%2B_1/8_%2B_1/16_%2B_⋯

    It’s not about colloquialism or language

    Having one word (or phrase) with two meanings is a property of language.


  • qjkxbmwvzto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneTriangle rule
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    20 hours ago

    That’s exactly my point, there are two different colloquial ways of talking about angles. I am not claiming there is a mathematical inconsistency.

    Colloquially, a “triangle has 180 degrees” and a “circle has 360 degrees.” Maybe that’s different in different education systems, but certainly in the US that’s how things are taught at the introductory level.

    The sum of internal angles for a regular polygon with n sides is (n-2pi. In the limit of n going to infinity, a regular polygon is a circle. From above it’s clear that the sum of the internal angles also goes to infinity (wheres for n=3 it’s pi radians, as expected for a triangle).

    There is no mystery here, I am just complaining about sloppy colloquial language that, in my opinion, doesn’t foster good geometric intuition, especially as one is learning geometry.


  • qjkxbmwvzto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneTriangle rule
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    23 hours ago

    I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.

    If you take a circle to be the limit of a polygon as the number of sides goes to infinity, then you have infinite interior angles, with each angle approaching 180deg, as the edges become infinitely short and approach being parallel. The sum of the angles is infinite in this case.

    If you reduce this to three sides instead of infinite, then you get a triangle with a sum of interior angles of 180deg which we know and love.

    On the other hand, any closed shape (Euclidean, blah blah), from the inside, is 360deg basically by definition.

    It’s just a different meaning of angle.

    See, for example, the internal angle sum, which is unbounded: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_polygon


  • qjkxbmwvzto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneTriangle rule
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    1 day ago

    Triangle, “has 180 degrees,” subtends 360 degrees.

    Circle, “has 360 degrees,” the sum of the interior angles is infinite.

    (I’m not actually confused, it’s just that “a circle has 360 degrees” and “a triangle has 180 degrees” is a little annoying in that they use different definitions.)







  • Or, malicious compliance by someone with a moral compass. Best is to somehow leak documents wholesale. But if that’s not possible, I think the next best way to all but guarantee that the information gets out is to do a lousy job censoring, and let “The Internet” do the rest. It also makes the administration look even more stupid, especially in the eyes of technically minded folks.

    But yeah, not the best and brightest, that’s certainly a possibility.





  • qjkxbmwvztoScience Memes@mander.xyzi need sleep
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    5 days ago

    High frequency is generally bad for transmission line losses, so getting power from A to B is better at lower frequency — DC is a great option here.

    If we switched to DC, many things would still flicker though as they would presumably use switching power supplies, but those could be relatively high frequency like you said.

    Interestingly, airplanes use 400Hz, as transmission over distance doesn’t matter, and transformers can be made much smaller/lighter.


  • The history of the smallpox vaccine is fascinating iirc — milk maids, orphans-as-storage+transportation, really crazy stuff.

    And after reading about it, one thing that’s neat is that it makes sense. You don’t need to talk about homeopathic “water memory” or whatever, and you don’t even need a solid understanding of biology — the whole thing just kinda…makes sense.

    And yet, here we are…