this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
321 points (83.4% liked)

Science Memes

15753 readers
3868 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
[–] credo@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I don’t remember all my geometric rules I guess, but can an arc, intersecting a line, ever truly be a right angle? At no possible length of segment along that arc can you draw a line that’s perpendicular to the first.

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

An infinitely small segment of the arc can be.
Geometrically there isn't a problem. If you draw a line from that point to the center of the arc, it will make it clearer.

[–] credo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I guess if we define it as a calculus problem, I can see the point..

I didn’t mean to pun but there it is and I’m leaving it. Any way, there is no infinitely small section that’s perpendicular. Only the tangent at a single (infinitely small) point along a smooth curve, as we approach from either direction. Maybe that’s still called perpendicular.

load more comments (1 replies)