Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

It doesn't seem that we have had a Troll Math entry yet.
Before possibly creating it or leaving it to someone else who may want to, I'm first asking if this meme is more Internet than Mainstream related.
I'm also asking if it should be mentioned in the Troll Physics/Troll Science entry instead of having its own entry.

Troll Math, as the name speaks for itself, is the Mathematic counterpart of Troll Science. However, there is a big difference here in the fact that Troll Math is based on actual formula that are still provoking today heated debates among people, like the following assertion that PI = 4 because of the use of a fractal :

There is also the classic 2 = 1 misconception which is actually based on a division by zero :

I remember an old demotivational, existing for a while, talking about that 2 = 1 nonsense. There is even a 1997 link explaining it.

A last classic one is the 0,999 = 1 wrong assertation that, according to wikipedia, has been up to debate on the Internet for a very long time.

What do you think people? Does it deserve a spot on KYM as well?

As a mathematician, I like it, but I think it's another minor sub-meme of Troll Physics.

A last classic one is the 0,999 = 1 wrong assertation that, according to wikipedia, has been up to debate on the Internet for a very long time.

Wait.

Is that trolling or mathematical unawareness?

I'm not sure if "people fighting over mathematical fallacies" is quite the same as "troll math." The ones with trollface are blatantly "trolling," while the ones from 1999 look like semi-serious discussions.

We do have an article on people fighting over toilet paper orientation, which shows that popular flame war topics can have their own articles.

But I just don't see a real link between this and this besides the fact that they both reference mathematical fallacies.

I'll look around, though, to see if there's more to the "troll math" idea.

I dunno, I like the idea, but something bothers me.

ps: you're talking about this one, right?

They're not supposed to make sense, they're fallacies, but ones that seem somewhat convincing if you present them right. Math is actually full of fun things like this, especially in higher math.

I remember in calculus this one time, our professor showed us the mathematical construction of a three-dimensional object with a finite volume but an infinite surface area. He said, "So, you could fill it up, but you couldn't paint it!"

I raised my hand and asked, "So what if you filled it with paint?"

&troll;

Hmm, I just did a Google search, and I was surprised how much of this is out there. I still don't think it's a separate meme, though. After all, math is often considered a science.

Looking back at my last comment, maybe we could use an article on the history of mathematical fallacies on the internet and add a small section to Troll Physics if there are enough popular math images specifically with the trollface on it.

i dunno :/

I guess what bothers me is that math fallacies=beginning of the internet(+maybe upsurge w/ troll physics), whereas troll physics=2010. Putting the entire history of math fallacies on the internet into the 2010 troll physics phenomenon doesn't feel right to me.

Also, mathematical/logical fallacies are fun to use to screw around with people :)

I mean, is this "Troll Computing"?

I think there are a lot of subcategories of this sort of thing that ought to be grouped under "Troll Science".

I think that picture belongs to 'Troll Physics'
3rd picture says: 'GRAVITY PULLS the download bar'

Looking back at my last comment, maybe we could use an article on the history of mathematical fallacies on the internet and add a small section to Troll Physics if there are enough popular math images specifically with the trollface on it.

That's actually what I had in mind.
Math fallacies were popular on the Internet way before the Troll Math version of Troll Science and yes OGW, that's the demotivational I was talking about, although I also remember another one which looked like it was written on a blackboard.

I guess what bothers me is that math fallacies=beginning of the internet(+maybe upsurge w/ troll physics), whereas troll physics=2010. Putting the entire history of math fallacies on the internet into the 2010 troll physics phenomenon doesn’t feel right to me.

Exactly, especially the 0.999 = 1 fallacy that's even considered to be true from the point of view of some mathematicians and professors.
That's the difference here. Troll Physics is based on "easy-to-reject" science fallacies (magnets in particular). Those Math ones, on the other hand…

What do you mean, easy to reject?

Magnets are fucking miracles.

Magnets are miracles indeed.
So… well, what about Math Fallacies as an entry, then?
Do you think it's too wide a subject

Math fallacies easily predate the Internet. I really don't think so. I think it simply belongs under "Troll Science". (Which the "Troll Physics" entry should be renamed as, so as to include Troll Math and even ""https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/troll-politics">Troll Politics" as a social science.)

Pic possibly related…

So if Fred is taller than Barbara, but Jan is Taller than Susan, then who will be the last man standing in the Limbo contest?

Fred, since he's the only man.

…but I came back here to reiterate the point in my above post because I'm a math nerd. Troll math or math fallacies go back at least to the Greeks. The square root of two used to fuck with their heads because they didn't believe in irrational numbers. You could prove quite easily that root(2) is irrational, but they just refused to accept the proof because it didn't fit with their worldview.

Math is full of stuff that messes with your head. There's a story that Georg Cantor, after inventing the Cantor Set, checked himself into a mental institution because its strange properties (For instance, it has zero total length, but an infinite number of points, and can be topologically mapped onto the unit interval.) convinced him he'd gone insane.

Wrong.

Jan is also a man. The confusion over his name is because Jan is also a Dutch man's name, and he was born and raised in the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean where he had more exposure to limboing than Fred and the girls.

Ironically, Jan is also only 5'5" so, ya know, the whole height thing was just a red herring. &troll;

Yes, but what's not stated in the original problem is how incredibly flexible and agile Fred is.

Meanwhile, Jan burned his weenie off.

Troll Cosmology?

You both seem to have forgotten that Barbara is "gender-queer" – this is hir stage name for hir amazing limbo act, and even without the 6 inch stilettos ze is biologically male and thus derp de derp derp, de tiddily dum.