Frank and Ernest by Thaves for January 10, 2025

That’s plane to see.

The shortest distance between two lines is a straight point.

Why are we taught plane geometry when space is bent? We live on a sphere. Draw a long enough line on the surface and it is an arc. Most of space is like that. And don’t get me started on time.

The religions of ancient cultures based on myths might be called the equivalent of television and video games in the common mind, entertainments to explain the world in fanciful ways and keep the Elite in power.

The usefulness of certain aspects of science and mathematics was so powerful as not to be completely denied. It, however, has taken centuries for science to replace superstition as much as it has. Sometimes superstition periodically makes a troubling resurgence, as we still see today.

As an extreme concept, see Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons’.

what did the Ancient Greek say when he was turned into wood? Gee, I’m a Tree

Understanding mathematics — including geometry — was needed in order to create TV and video games. The Greeks developed math in order for us to be able to divert ourselves.

Thank them.

it’s a sine O’ the times

⁽ ʰᵉʸ‧‧‧ ᵃᵗ ˡᵉᵃˢᵗ ᴵ’ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵃ ᵗʳᵉᵉ ⁾

and there would be no Keftedes, Soutzoukakia, Stifado, Souvlaki, or Tzatziki…!

Are Euclid•ing me?

The little acorn grew and grew. One day he woke up and said, “Geometry!”

Then you’d be allowed to have nudity on every sports channel.

If the ancient Greeks had TV and video games, someone would have had to invent that silly geometry before them.

Kid definitely is of the modern school. YOLO so why spend so much of it on stuff I’ll never use? But also familiar to my own time in school in the ’50’s.

Didn’t survive a deep dive into the subject in high school but managed to salvage enough to help in a few projects later on.

Kid, there will come a time when you will need that knowledge or at least hire someone who does. Elsewise life will be a lot less satisfactory.

Well, he really went off on a tangent

It’s plane (sic) to see that the people who design televisions and video games have a solid understanding of geometry.

99.99999% of ancient Greeks did not invent geometry. But it only took the one. Just as, today, 99.999999999% of the population can be watching TV and playing video games, and we’ll still have the occasional genius out there finding things to expand our knowledge of how the world works. (A little side hint: 0% of the material and technological marvels we take for granted today came to us as a result of prayer or divine revelation.)

Geometry was my favorite math class in junior high school. I have used it frequently as an adult.

well, i think you got that angle right

They watched young men running around naked, then wrestling each other. Naked.

sounds like he’s done the math…

I absolutely detested having to memorize the various geometry theorems. They seemed utterly pointless to me and given the fact that I have never found a use for them in the real world I guess I was right.