this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 276 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Fake and gay.

No way the engineer corrects the mathematician for using j instead of i.

[–] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 51 points 3 days ago (7 children)

As an engineer I fully agree. Engineers¹ aren't even able to do basic arithmetics. I even cannot count to 10.

¹ Except maybe Electrical engineers. They seem to be quite smart.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 44 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Engineer here, I can definitely count to 10 tho

0 1 10

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[–] gnutrino@programming.dev 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Electrical engineers are the ones that use j though (because i is used for current)

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Having worked with electrical engineers, some of them are quite smart, the rest have lead poisoning.

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[–] Hoimo@ani.social 39 points 3 days ago (3 children)

How do we know it's gay though? OP could be a girl (male)

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 59 points 3 days ago

Because it's 4chan. And there are no women on the Internet on 4chan

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 days ago

Sure OP is a girl. Guy In Real Life

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[–] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Right? They got that shit backwards. Op is a fraud. i is used in pure math, j is used in engineering.

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[–] kogasa@programming.dev 18 points 3 days ago (6 children)

The mathematician also used "operative" instead of, uh, something else, and "associative" instead of "commutative"

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[–] laserm@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Why would a mathematician use j for imaginary numbers and why would engineer be mad at them?

[–] CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only thing I can think of is that the OP studied electrical engineering at some point. But it's a 4chan story so probably fake anyway.

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago

fake and gay?

[–] prex@aussie.zone 9 points 2 days ago

I think it might be the wrong way around: Engineers like to use j for imaginary numbers because i is needed for current.

[–] AlboTheGuy@feddit.nl 7 points 2 days ago

Mathematicians are taught to be elastic with notation, because they tend to be taught many different interpretations of the same theory.

On the other hand engineers use more strict and consistent notation, their classes have a more practical approach.

Using the same notation makes it faster to read and apply math, a more agile approach helps with learning new theories and approaches and with being creative.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 30 points 3 days ago

I have no idea what they're talking about, but I do love a happy ending.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 53 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (8 children)

operative?

Also mathematicians use i for imaginary, engineers use j. The story does not add up. I have never seen a single mathematician use j for imaginary.

[–] SanicHegehog@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

imaJinary

TIL engineers can't spell for shit.

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[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 140 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Wait bottom mathematican is using j=√-1 instead of i and not the engineer? Because I'm EE gang, and all my homies use j.

[–] GandalfTheDumb@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That part also got me really confused. All the mathematicans I know use i while engineers use i or j depending on the kind of engineer. I've never seen a Pikachu engineer using anything other than j.

[–] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 3 days ago

Pikachu engineer

That's a fucking favorite now. Keeping that in my back pocket.

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The fun starts when you study quaternions

i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = −1

[–] pticrix@lemmy.ca 27 points 3 days ago (5 children)
[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 16 points 3 days ago (3 children)

(...I think you may have gotten whooshed...)

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[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 82 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago

Well done, truly

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[–] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 days ago

I love how that wannabe 4chan nerd just got outnerded in the comment section

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 46 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Me, a language/arts person: "Huh?"

[–] axEl7fB5@lemmy.cafe 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] lena 4 points 2 days ago

Fullstack dev here. "Huh?"

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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] nfamwap@feddit.uk 9 points 3 days ago

Moron here. "Huh?"

[–] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 70 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’m a mechanical engineering student with a math minor and I’m a switch so yeah, I’d take either side of this

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As a physicist I can't understand why would anyone complain about a +jb or $\int dx f(x)$. Probably because we don't fuck

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 21 points 3 days ago (5 children)

As a software dude I can see you wrote a regex, I just can't find out what you're trying to match.

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[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 days ago (2 children)

$\int dx f(x)$ is standard notation for physicists

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[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is the kind of brat I can get behind. 😏

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[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I think rather d/dx is the operator. You apply it to an expression to bind free occurrences of x in that expression. For example, dx²/dx is best understood as d/dx (x²). The notation would be clear if you implement calculus in a program.

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

If not fraction, why fraction shaped?

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Can somebody ELI5 this for my troglodyte writer brain?

[–] BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Integrals are an expression that basically has an opening symbol, and an operation that is written at the end of it that is used also as a closing symbol, looks kinda like:$ {some function of x} dx.

The person basically said "the dx part can be written at the start also, and that would make my so mad :3": $ dx {some function of x}.

This gets their so mad because understandably this makes the notation non-standard and harder to read, also you'd have to use parentheses if the expression doesn't just end at the function.

Note: dollar used instead of integral symbol

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[–] int_not_found@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

An integral is usually written like ∫ f(x) dx or alternatively as df(x)/dx. Please note that this is just a way to apply the operation 'Integration', like + applies the operation 'Addition'. There is no real multiplication or division.

But sometimes you can take a shortcut and treat dx as a multiplied constant. This is technically not correct, but under the right circumstances lands you at the same solution as the proper way. This then looks like this ∫ f(y) dy/dx dx = ∫ f(y) dy

Another thing you can do is to move multiplicative constants from inside the Integral to in front of the Integral: ∫ 2f(x) dx = 2 ∫ f(x) dx. (That is always correct btw)

What anon did was combine those two things and basically write ∫ f(x) dx = dx ∫ f(x). Which is nonsensical, but given the above rules not easily disproven.

This is more or less the same tactic used by internet trolls just in a mathy way. Purposefully misinterpreting arguments and information, that cost the other party considerably more energy to discover and rebut. Hence the hate fuck.

[–] edinbruh@feddit.it 19 points 3 days ago

Relationship goals

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