Dumb Questions Thread
- Thread starter Liquid
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If you graph y=1/x it produces this.
The vertical asymptote at x=0 is that awkward spot where one way tends to +∞ and the other to -∞. Effectively this then becomes an infinitesimally small region where it has to be both positive and negative infinity, and thus cannot exist. In the same way that x cannot equal 0, y cannot equal 0 either, because no number goes into 1 Zero times.
- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
That would be 0/2 though, which still works. If the goal was to split the orange between 2 people and you have 0 oranges, that would mean each person gets 0 oranges. It's the same as multiplying the 0 oranges by 0.5.
Dividing by 0 would be a situation where you wanted to divide an orange such that you can only distribute the pieces to 0 people exactly. You can't do that by division because dividing a larger thing will always give you something, a part of the original. You can divide something as much as you want but you'll never make it disappear by doing so. You can see it in @Jimlaad43 's graph.
- 5,062
- Panama City, FL
Zero as a divisor doesn't work because zero times anything is zero.
In simplest terms, any number times its reciprocal equals 1. The very definition of "reciprocal." If we allowed 1/0 to be a non-error, and allowed it to be infinity, then 0 times infinity would have to equal 1.
In simplest terms, any number times its reciprocal equals 1. The very definition of "reciprocal." If we allowed 1/0 to be a non-error, and allowed it to be infinity, then 0 times infinity would have to equal 1.
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- Ireland/Nederland
- TheJudge2009
Anyone who wakes up from a very vivid nightmare knows what it's like to feel stuck somewhere between a memory and a dream.
Those experiences lend credence to the idea that there are limitations to our senses.
You wake up and the you find out you are still a sleep and have to wake UP again...... been there done it.
So, my questions is>>>
Do we as a whole as a Humanity live in the real world or in a Presumed universe or the other way around????
Those experiences lend credence to the idea that there are limitations to our senses.
You wake up and the you find out you are still a sleep and have to wake UP again...... been there done it.
So, my questions is>>>
Do we as a whole as a Humanity live in the real world or in a Presumed universe or the other way around????
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- 1,241
- Australia
That's an easy one. Trauma bonding exists.
- 11,181
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- eran0004
Multiplication by zero works with the definition we have of multiplication.
Division by zero doesn’t work with our definition of division, because it leads to contradictions, so division by zero is not defined. And an operation which has not been defined can obviously not be used.
In algebraic equations you have to be careful with your operations so you don’t accidentally divide by zero. A famous example is:
Let a = b | multiply by a
-> a^2 = ab | subtract b^2
-> a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2
-> (a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b) | divide by (a-b)
-> a+b = b
-> 2b = b
-> 2 = 1 -> contradiction!
Note that a = b means that a-b = 0, so division by (a-b) is division by zero, which is what caused the contradiction above.
A shorter and more direct example is:
4*0 = 1*0 | divide both sides by zero
-> 4 = 1 -> contradiction!
Metaphorically speaking, if you think of numbers as vectors with a length and a direction (positive to the right and negative to the left), then zero is a number without any length and without any direction. It’s the only number which is zero-dimensional, kind of a point of singularity, a “black hole” of mathematics. You can put stuff into the black hole (by multiplying by zero) but you can’t extract anything out of the black hole (by dividing by zero). Once you have multiplied a number by zero it’s gone and you can’t get it back. If you attempt a division by zero, the whole mathematical universe breaks down and falls apart and you end up with a surreal and endless mess of contradictions.
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Danoff
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Am I doomed to interrupted sleep?
My dad was that dad who would wake up at 5am because he couldn't sleep, brag about how much he'd gotten done before everyone was awake, and fall asleep on the couch at 1pm. I'm 43 and I can feel that pattern creeping in. I don't know if it's kids or age or both that are preventing me from getting a solid night's sleep, but I often cannot finish the night. It would be fine if I simply didn't need that much sleep, but I'm tired during the day as a result. I don't let myself nap though.
So is this it? Am I going to be up at 5am every day and narcoleptic?
My dad was that dad who would wake up at 5am because he couldn't sleep, brag about how much he'd gotten done before everyone was awake, and fall asleep on the couch at 1pm. I'm 43 and I can feel that pattern creeping in. I don't know if it's kids or age or both that are preventing me from getting a solid night's sleep, but I often cannot finish the night. It would be fine if I simply didn't need that much sleep, but I'm tired during the day as a result. I don't let myself nap though.
So is this it? Am I going to be up at 5am every day and narcoleptic?
- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
I wasn't in quite the same situation, and of course what happened in my case won't necessarily reflect on yours, but I had fallen into some bad sleep habits in the past couple of years which pushed me out of sync with my daily schedule. I'd be up late and be tired in the morning. I originally tried to force myself back into a normal sleep cycle, but it didn't seem to work. I essentially gave up for a while, but decided to try again after some time. I was really diligent about sticking to the sleep cycle I wanted the second time and eventually I was successful in resetting my sleep pattern. It didn't feel good at first, I'd just be awake in bed for hours, or being tired mid day and forcing myself to stay awake. I don't recall how long it took to see results, but slowly everything did start to realign.
- 23,884
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Some people are naturally morning people and others naturally night owls. My mums a morning person but my dad's a night owl and i take after him. As i now work from home i can follow my natural pattern and still be up 20 minutes (or less) before i'm 'at my desk' and still get a decent night's sleep.
I've always been blessed with being able to sleep well too so i'm able to burn the candle at both ends pretty efficiently.
I imagine people with kids or those having jobs that impact what their sleeping patterns would naturally be - or both, can get very tired because of that lack of sleep and i think worrying about it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for many. It becomes a vicious circle. My wife is like that. She's a light sleeper and it doesn't take much to disturb her. As she works predominantly with people in the US she finds herself working what would be considered unsociable hours for a European, but thankfully she has no commitments to getting up at a similar time to me so she still just about manages to fit in her daily sleep, even if it is not always allocated in one chunk.
I think there's something to be said for the southern european habit of lunchtime/early afternoon naps. It makes early starts and/or late finishes that bit more bareable.
I've always been blessed with being able to sleep well too so i'm able to burn the candle at both ends pretty efficiently.
I imagine people with kids or those having jobs that impact what their sleeping patterns would naturally be - or both, can get very tired because of that lack of sleep and i think worrying about it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for many. It becomes a vicious circle. My wife is like that. She's a light sleeper and it doesn't take much to disturb her. As she works predominantly with people in the US she finds herself working what would be considered unsociable hours for a European, but thankfully she has no commitments to getting up at a similar time to me so she still just about manages to fit in her daily sleep, even if it is not always allocated in one chunk.
I think there's something to be said for the southern european habit of lunchtime/early afternoon naps. It makes early starts and/or late finishes that bit more bareable.
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- 29,648
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
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- GTP_TheCracker
It's how i choose to sleep. Sue me. 
- 1,241
- Australia
Some people think it's natural to speculate and form conspiracy theories about every little thing. Curiosity is normal but beyond that I'm not sure. I just think trauma has an important role. The conspiracies spread like wildfire when you have other people agreeing with you; because they're hurt about the same thing
Danoff
Premium
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I see the issue. The term "trauma bonding" is widely misused in this way. Trauma bonding is not people bonding over shared trauma. That's better described as a support group or similar. Trauma bonding is the victim bonding with the abuser. It's a bit of a misnomer because the bonding seems to actually occur in between periods of abuse during a reinforcement phase in the abuse cycle.
If you go looking for a definition to support your use of trauma bonding, you will find it easily. That's because term is widely misunderstood. But it has a technical definition and the technical definition is more like what you might think stockholm syndrome is (which isn't actually a syndrome at all and is not really a thing except as a form of the broader trauma bonding).
I'm not sure about your thesis that trauma plays an important role in conspiratorial thinking. I'm sure for some it does. But some of the people I know that are most into conspiracies don't really fit that mold in my view. They don't seem to have deep ties to trauma, and the conspiracy thinking doesn't seem to stem from that. Mostly in my experience it stems from people with a fragile ego (for whatever reason) who desperately want to feel like they're in on a secret that most people aren't. It seems to make them feel good about themselves to be in on the secret.
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- Australia
My understanding of the mind works, and evolution... The brain gives you problems to solve, if you can't solve the important ones you begin to panic and eventually your very survival feels threatened. With this in mind, if you solve a problem, you are then in search of the next problem, if you can't solve that one, doesn't mean the problem itself goes away. Could be decades later, but It's always present in the brain, because to the brain if you do not solve this problem your survival is threatened (as the problem grows into a bigger one on the priority list, with time this tends to happen, making a mountain out of a molehill). Conspiracies are a way of thinking where you do not need to solve the problem. You can go back to living in boredom then as it Allows you to rest instead of living in panic. For those that use conspiracies to calm themselves down, I see it as harmless.
Harmless you say? What's worse, people believing in easily identifyable conspiracies or those who are spreading around truth, which is often far from truth. Useless information masking as truth is more detrimental.
Harmless you say? What's worse, people believing in easily identifyable conspiracies or those who are spreading around truth, which is often far from truth. Useless information masking as truth is more detrimental.
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- 1,241
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Tradition will always be a thing. Plus Practicing Religious families tend to have an easier time raising their kids, parents know this, they can use help of their church group to discipline their kids, taking the load of stress off the parents themselves. Most religions have been around for so long, it already has it's following. Groups of People attract more people. There's multiple reasons as to why humans feel the need for a religion.
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- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
That's not exclusive to churches or religion though.
Responding to the original question, religion has been around long enough to shape itself into something that clicks with many people. Some people value answers more than the truth, some fear death, some want the assurance of having someone in control. Many popular religions also incorporate systems that tend to spread them. For example Christianity promotes the idea that converting people to the religion is "saving" them.
I think it is possible for people to get past religion, but it will still be with us for a while yet.
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It's possible to get past religion, but sunk cost fallacy kicks in. The person is left with "why would I believe that God doesn't exist when I've been practicing perfectly for 3 decades? and my entire social network depends on me, I don't want to lose it all or get a reputation as the black sheep"
The key I think that these use is to target and indoctrinate the youth rather dogmatically, and have their families be religious too.
The key I think that these use is to target and indoctrinate the youth rather dogmatically, and have their families be religious too.
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- 29,648
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
Why do conservatives so readily allege pedophilia or child rape when referring to political opposition or those they simply don't like? Of all the things one can call another, why is the purported inclination of an adult to rape a minor what they've got locked and loaded?
Joey D
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- GTP_Joey
- GTP Joey
What's truly going to be special is that Kimmel is ABC, ABC is owned by Disney, who also owns ESPN and pays Rodgers to talk endlessly every Wednesday. I'm guessing Mickey Mouse will come with copyright free Willy to the McAfee Show and lower the boom because that's not a good look.Yeah. Though there have been many examples, that's the one that got me wondering.
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- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
I understand that we are carbon-based lifeforms (without really understanding what that means) but what are the elements our cells are made out of?
Heart cells?
Brain cells?
Muscle cells?
Intestinal cells?
Sperm cells?
I know the skeleton is made of calcium phosphate and that there is iron in the blood but given that the cellular level is, in the eyes of a layman, indivisible, what are the cells actually made up of? Is it all or mostly carbon just arranged in a particular way? We're ~70% water so clearly there is dihydrogen monoxide and the constituent hydrogen and oxygen in us.
I'm sorry that this one is poorly phrased but apart from the obvious elements in our bodies, I don't know what the itty bitty stuff is.
Heart cells?
Brain cells?
Muscle cells?
Intestinal cells?
Sperm cells?
I know the skeleton is made of calcium phosphate and that there is iron in the blood but given that the cellular level is, in the eyes of a layman, indivisible, what are the cells actually made up of? Is it all or mostly carbon just arranged in a particular way? We're ~70% water so clearly there is dihydrogen monoxide and the constituent hydrogen and oxygen in us.
I'm sorry that this one is poorly phrased but apart from the obvious elements in our bodies, I don't know what the itty bitty stuff is.
