this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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I found math in physics to have this really fun duality of "these are rigorous rules that must be followed" and "if we make a set of edge case assumptions, we can fit the square peg in the round hole"
Also I will always treat the derivative operator as a fraction
2+2 = 5
…for sufficiently large values of 2
i was in a math class once where a physics major treated a particular variable as one because at csmic scale the value of the variable basically doesn't matter. the math professor both was and wasn't amused
Engineer. 2+2=5+/-1
Statistician: 1+1=sqrt(2)
Computer science: 2+2=4 (for integers at least; try this with floating point numbers at your own peril, you absolute fool)
0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004
comparing floats for exact equality should be illegal, IMO
Freshmen engineer: wow floating point numbers are great.
Senior engineer: actually the distribution of floating point errors is mindfuck.
Professional engineer: the mean error for all pairwaise 64 bit floating point operations is smaller than the Planck constant.
I mean as an engineer, this should actually be 2+2=4 +/-1.
pi*pi = g
units don't match, though
Found the engineer
I always chafed at that.
"Here are these rigid rules you must use and follow."
"How did we get these rules?"
"By ignoring others."
is this how Brian Greene was born?