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307

Fuck geometry (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 3 weeks ago (14 children)

This triangle is impossible.

If the distance between B and C is 0, B and C are the same points. If that is the case, the distances between A and B and A and C must be the same.

However, i ≠ 1.

If you want it to be real (hehe) the triangle should be like this:

    C
    | \
|i| |  \ 0
    |   \
    A---B
     |1|

Drawing that on mobile was a pain.

As the other guy said, you cannot have imaginary distances.

Also, you can only use Pythagoras with triangles that have a 90° angle. Nothing in the meme says that there's a 90° angle. As I see it, there are only 0° and 180° angles.

Goodbye, I have to attend other memes to ruin.

[–] planish 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is clearly meant to be a right triangle. And the distances between the points are the same (because the squares of the coordinate differences are the same), just the directions are different.

If you move 1 unit forward, turn the correct 90 degrees, and then move i units forward, you will end up back where you started.

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

You can't have a distance in a "different direction". That's what the |x| is for, which is the modulus. If you rotate a triangle, the length of the sides don't change.

[–] planish 2 points 2 weeks ago

The vector from one point to another in space has both a distance (magnitude) and a direction. Labeling the side with i only really makes sense if you say we're looking at a vector of "i units that way", and not at an assertion that these two points are a directionless i units apart. Then you'd have to break out the complex norms somebody mentioned.

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