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Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#51

Post by Arnavion »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #42
asddubs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i took it to mean that they stumbled upon it in the sense that they didn't try to make a novel contribution to the field of mathematics or think they were doing that, but just solving a specific problem

I suppose in my head, when the phrase "stumbled upon" is used, it would imply that someone was solving a problem that they weren't intending to solve, or via a method that they weren't intending. A hypothetical headline might be "Food scientist stumbles upon cure for cancer while refining process for fish oil": the scientist wasn't trying to solve the problem of cancer, they were trying to solve the problem of extend…

"Stumbled upon" is used for mathematicians discovering something by working it out all the time.

Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#52

Post by Arnavion »

Izkata wrote: post #48
throw9348491 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Citations are supposed to be able to be looked up, and 4chan threads are designed to disappear. This only still exists because someone realized it was important (or, more likely, amusing that someone succeeded) and saved it elsewhere.

Lots of boards, including /sci/ (the board in question) have automatic permanent archives. The archive of this thread is linked in the mathsci.wikia.com page ( https://warosu.org/sci/thread/S3751105#p3751197 )

Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#55

Post by thaumasiotes »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #42
asddubs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i took it to mean that they stumbled upon it in the sense that they didn't try to make a novel contribution to the field of mathematics or think they were doing that, but just solving a specific problem

I suppose in my head, when the phrase "stumbled upon" is used, it would imply that someone was solving a problem that they weren't intending to solve, or via a method that they weren't intending. A hypothetical headline might be "Food scientist stumbles upon cure for cancer while refining process for fish oil": the scientist wasn't trying to solve the problem of cancer, they were trying to solve the problem of extend…

> But you would find it strange if the article said, "Oncologist stumbles upon cure for cancer while testing new colon cancer treatment." Because in that case, the scientist is seemingly doing what he set out to do--it was not unintentional.

I wouldn't really find that strange. Finding a cure for cancer is not an expected outcome of testing a cancer treatment and certainly isn't what the oncologist is trying to do. It's directly related to what you were trying to do, and better, but it's still a lucky find that you weren't looking for.

Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#56

Post by [deleted] »

Izkata wrote: post #40
layer8 wrote: post #2

Previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18292061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23968618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39325146 See also: https://mathsci.fandom.com/wiki/The_Haruhi_Problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpermutation#Lower_bounds,...

The image in the upper-right of the Fandom link was how it was posted in the 4chan thread, little disappointing it's left out of most posts about it. The character is actually from Steins;Gate , not The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya : https://steins-gate.fandom.com/wiki/Kurisu_Makise

[deleted]

Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#58

Post by hilsdev »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #24

Loath as I am to give 4chan credit for anything positive, I feel like the article subject is slightly dismissive with its use of the phrase "stumbled upon." The anonymous 4chan user clearly did the work , it's not as though they came upon a proof written in the sand. For all we know it was a grad student with an ABD in Statistics who just happened to like anime. But the phrasing almost implies it's not a true accompl…

4chan has a large cesspit, but it gathers a lot of intelligent people who can ignore the noise. For any interest, there’s someone somewhere who made a half decent thread on the topic. There’s decent barriers too (as in the less talked about boards are more thoroughly moderated than the ones that make the news, much like Reddit)

Re: Anime fans stumbled upon a mathematical proof

#60

Post by OscarCunningham »

bntyhntr wrote: post #39

At one of my old jobs, the bathroom was locked with a 4 digit code followed by the key symbol. We jokingly made up "Bathroom Code" as an interview question/to nerd snipe each other instead of working, which was "assuming you don't have to press key, and that the bathroom door will unlock if the correct 4 digits are entered in order at any time, write the code to print the shortest possible test sequence to guarantee…

If the code is allowed repeats then the problem is much easier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bruijn_sequence.
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