this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Can somebody ELI5 this for my troglodyte writer brain?

[–] int_not_found@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

An integral is usually written like ∫ f(x) dx or alternatively as df(x)/dx. Please note that this is just a way to apply the operation 'Integration', like + applies the operation 'Addition'. There is no real multiplication or division.

But sometimes you can take a shortcut and treat dx as a multiplied constant. This is technically not correct, but under the right circumstances lands you at the same solution as the proper way. This then looks like this ∫ f(y) dy/dx dx = ∫ f(y) dy

Another thing you can do is to move multiplicative constants from inside the Integral to in front of the Integral: ∫ 2f(x) dx = 2 ∫ f(x) dx. (That is always correct btw)

What anon did was combine those two things and basically write ∫ f(x) dx = dx ∫ f(x). Which is nonsensical, but given the above rules not easily disproven.

This is more or less the same tactic used by internet trolls just in a mathy way. Purposefully misinterpreting arguments and information, that cost the other party considerably more energy to discover and rebut. Hence the hate fuck.

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[–] marcos@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Hum... I don't think the integral "operator" applies by multiplication.

You can put the dx at the beginning of the integral, but not before it.

[–] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Nobody on your link is treating the integral "operator" as multiplicative.

dx \int f(x) is blatantly different from \int f(x) dx

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[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Gods I wish I had a top to troll like this

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[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Physicist behavior

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

But physicists actually do that? They often write it like this: ∫ dx f(x) or this: ∫∫∫ dxdydz f(x,y,z)

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