this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 295 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Fake and gay.

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

[–] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 53 points 3 weeks ago (6 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 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Engineer here, I can definitely count to 10 tho

0 1 10

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[–] gnutrino@programming.dev 33 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

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[–] thomasloven@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

10? That’s the name some put to 1e1, right?

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Except maybe Electrical engineers.

Yup, I can count just fine to the 10th number in a zero-indexed counting system: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white.

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

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

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

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

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

Sure OP is a girl. Guy In Real Life

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Newfag.

(sorry! seemed like the appropriate 4chan reply)

[–] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 weeks 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 20 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

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

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[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 3 weeks ago

My thoughts exactly lol

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 148 points 3 weeks 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 65 points 3 weeks 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 24 points 3 weeks ago

Pikachu engineer

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

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The fun starts when you study quaternions

i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = −1

[–] pticrix@lemmy.ca 32 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 19 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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

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[–] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

It gets worse actually. You can define a number system using any power of 2 amount of i-like units in a similar relationship to quaternions using the Cayley-Dickson construction

Fascinatingly, you lose some property of the algebra at each step. Quaternions aren't commutative: ABC != CBA. Octonians aren't associative: (AB)C != A(BC). Once you get into 16 i's with subscripts, it really gets crazy.

(Also, I just got the joke. Damnit @HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone your serious answer threw me off!)

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[–] bisby@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

I agree. Clearly i is current. What is this i=√-1 nonsense.

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[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 85 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

Well done, truly

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[–] lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 78 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 76 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Is anyone doing anything tonight?

[–] serenissi@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

no, d..do you have a plan?

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Something something distance calls for norm, not just squares.

||i||² + ||1||² = 2

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[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 57 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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.

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

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

[–] axEl7fB5@lemmy.cafe 21 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] _g_be@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 31 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 30 points 3 weeks 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 weeks 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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[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 26 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Better plot than 50 Shades of Grey

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[–] laserm@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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

[–] CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks 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.

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[–] prex@aussie.zone 10 points 2 weeks ago

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

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[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks 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 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If not fraction, why fraction shaped?

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[–] edinbruh@feddit.it 22 points 3 weeks ago

Relationship goals

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

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

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[–] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 weeks ago

They both bottoms.

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

Can somebody ELI5 this for my troglodyte writer brain?

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