this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

https://zeta.one/viral-math/

I wrote a (very long) blog post about those viral math problems and am looking for feedback, especially from people who are not convinced that the problem is ambiguous.

It's about a 30min read so thank you in advance if you really take the time to read it, but I think it's worth it if you joined such discussions in the past, but I'm probably biased because I wrote it :)

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[–] SpaceNoodle 11 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Right, because 5 rounds down to 4.5

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

@Prunebutt meant 4.5! and not 4.5. Because it's not an integer we have to use the gamma function, the extension of the factorial function to get the actual mean between 1 and 9 => 4.5! = 52.3428 which looks about right 🤣

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not sure if sarcastic and woosh, or adding to the joke ಠ_ಠ

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think you got hit hard by Poe's Law here. Except it's more like people couldn't tell if you were jokingly or genuinely getting your math wrong... Even after you explained you were joking lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I thought the "/j" tone-tag was enough ;_;

[–] SpaceNoodle 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

If one doesn't realize you're op, the entire thing can be interpreted very differently.
Then "Not sure if sarcastic and woosh, or adding to the joke ಠ_ಠ" could be interpreted as something like "I'm not sure if you are adding to the joke and I'm not understanding it".

[–] Sidhean 3 points 6 months ago

Stop it Patrick, you're scaring them!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

…Because 4 rounds up to 4.5