Math people: would a ship that is 1/4 slower but can complete a 180° turn 1/4 faster escape its pursuer?

Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 87 points –

I'm sure pirates knew the answer. Probably fighter pilots as well.

52

You are viewing a single comment

If it's any consolation, you are almost certainly within ~3 years of understanding the solution and a dozen variants. It's not a super deep area. Probably doesn't really require calculus (you need continuous as in 'the lion doesn't teleport; that's cheating', but I think not much more).

We must always consider capability. If it requires 3 quarts of understanding and I've only got a 1/2 gallon container, it's not all getting in there.

We aren't all the same. I am content that there are people way smarter than me. I've met some. They're usually cool.

Fortunately containers can get bigger =)

While we aren't all the same, there's a difference between things that require holding 8 complicated things in mind at once, and things that require a little language learning and the intelligence to solve a crossword. This is closer to the latter - like doing a crossword in Spanish. You need to know a bunch of little things, but learning them is basically all tedium and not brilliant insights. (Taking these puzzles, creating a dozen new variants, and solving all of those probably does require managing a lot of complexity. But to understand the work of others, is not so bad)

Agreed. I think "Flowers for Algernon" hit me hard. And I had an experience in college where I accidentally took a philosophy class called "Critical Theory Since Plato" when I first realized that I'm not very smart, just a little above average, and some people live life on a while different level than I do.

And don't get me started on "Electromechanical Wave Theory," a book I bought from Goodwill. I wanted to learn more about that, but I think it was written by aliens.

1 more...
1 more...