Category: theories

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People Share The Coolest Mathematical Facts They Know

While many of us rushed through our required math classes as quickly as we could in high school and college, some people really found joy in those classes.

After spending several more years studying the subject, they also discovered there were many more fun facts to mathematics than Geometry and Calculus may have suggested.

Redditor xxTick asked: 

“What’s the coolest mathematical fact you know of?”

Two Redditors joked about the Banach-Tarski paradox.

“Banach-Tarski paradox, in a nutshell what it says is that if you take a (let’s make it simpler) 3-dimensional ball, you can partition it in finite number of pieces (which is only true for 3-dim case, otherwise it’s countably infinite).”

“Then if you rotate and translate some of the pieces, you can get two exactly identical balls that we started with. So you might think we doubled the volume, indeed we did.” – I_luv_your_mom

“There was an old Reddit post about this that made me giggle. The user found out that if you order an extra tortilla with one of those massive Chipotle burritos, then separate the contents between the two, you will get two burritos of equal size to the original.”

“They called it the Banach–Tarski burrito.” – buggy65

Others were in awe over the power of doubling numbers.

“I had a coworker how refused to believe that if you multiply a penny by 2 every day for a month that you’d be a millionaire by the end of the month, even after I had walked her through it with a calculator.” – Old_man_at_heart

“This blew my mind, I saw something somewhere saying to start investing a penny on the first and you won’t believe what you’d get by the 30th. I was thinking like $500!! I was wrong.” – DranoDrinker

One Redditor wanted to talk about circles.

“I like to draw this one out to explain to people.”

“Circles (people) and lines (relationships) with every other circle. It’s easy to see how quickly the number of lines increase, which shows that adding more people is not a linear increase in probability, but a … exponential or multiplicative… I’m not sure which one at the moment.”

“1 person = 0 lines”

“2 people = 1 line”

“3 people = 3 lines”

“4 people = 6 lines”

“…”

“23 people = 253 lines”

“24 people = 276 lines”

“25 people = 300 lines”

“26 people = 325 lines” – SalAtWork

Some talked about the Birthday Problem and probability.

“The Birthday Problem.”

“If you have 23 people in a room, there is a 50% chance that at least two of them have the same birthday. If you put 70 people in, the probability jumps to 99.9%.”

“It seems f**king weird to me but I haven’t done math since high school so what do I know.” – honeyimsorry

“The reason this is confusing for most people is that they’re thinking of how many people they’d have to meet to find someone who shares their birthday. You need to think of how many potential pairs there are, which grows fairly quickly.”

“And, you need to do the calculation in negative: as we add each person, calculate the odds that no one shares a birthday, and the odds that there is a match are 1 – that.”

“You start with one. Obviously no match. Second one: 364/365 says they’re different. But when we add a third, there are two potential matches, so only a 363/365 chance he doesn’t match, and 362/365 for the fourth.”

“The odds there is a match are 1 – the product of the other fractions. Since the fractions are close to one, they almost equal one, but as each person comes in, we’re multiplying a number that starts to be significantly less than one by a fraction that each time is more notably less than one, so the odds there is no match start to fall quickly until they dip just below half at the 23 mark.” – TheAlpacaLives

Then there was the Collatz Conjecture.

“The Collatz Conjecture: It’s an unsolved mathematical conjecture that can be summarized as follows; Take any positive integer, or ‘n.’”

“If n is even, divide it by 2 to get n / 2. If n is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1 to obtain 3n + 1. Repeat the process indefinitely. The conjecture is that no matter what number you start with, you will always eventually reach 1.”

“For example, start with 21. it’s odd so I multiply by 3 and add 1, to get 64. 64 is even so I divide by 2 to get 32, again to get 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. No one has found a number that doesn’t follow this rule.” – AsiaWaffles

One Redditor talked about Rubik’s cubes.

“The maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik’s cube from any configuration is a mere 20.”

“Expecting Numberphile subscribers to have a strong showing in this thread.”

“To clarify, I mean the OPTIMAL solution from any given configuration will require fewer than or equal to 20 moves to solve.” – AlexVX_

One Redditor loved talking about multiplication. 

“1 x 1 = 1”

“11 x 11 = 121”

“111 x 111 = 12321”

“1111 x 1111 = 1234321”

“And on it goes” – IAmSomewhatHappy

A few talked about Pascal’s Triangle.

“Also, Pascal’s Triangle gives you the powers of 11 if you look at each row as a number.” – Aurora320

“I realized that in algebra class and tried to explain to my teacher why I thought it was so cool and he just didn’t get it. F**k you, Mr. Chase.” – 1stonepwn

One Redditor talked about Shizuo Kakutani.

“Shizuo Kakutani”

“If you take enough random steps in two dimensions, you’ll always eventually get back to your starting point. The same cannot be said of three dimensions.”

“I just find the idea that you will always get back to where you started by making random moves absolutely mind-boggling, and the fact things change just because you can go up and down is even weirder.” – _9tail_

One Redditor shared how they got into math.

“As a PhD student in mathematics, this is not a sexy answer, but one of the reasons I fell in love with math was in my differential equations course when we discussed modeling epidemic using mathematical equations.”

“It was so incredible to me that back in 1927, Kermack and McKendrick came up with a simple formulation of how to model a disease.”

“This idea has been expanded greatly, but their original version of the S-I-R compartmental model is still one of the coolest things. And it can also model rumors as well!” – hpmetsfan

Mathematics and similar subjects may have not been everyone’s favorite subject while they were going through school, but it’s clear now there was more to it than addition, subtraction and solving for X.

With facts like these, it’s almost enough to want to study math a little more again.

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People Debate What Would Happen if You Sat on Your Own Voodoo Doll

Sometimes the internet can seem like more trouble than it’s worth.

But then I see important discussions like this, and I remember the value of the world wide web.

If you sit on your own voodoo doll, can you ever get up again? from NoStupidQuestions

Before we begin the discussion let’s get it out of the way that the general cultural understanding of a “voodoo doll” has little to nothing to do with the real world traditions behind the namesake.

But for the purpose of philosophical argument, let’s assume we’re defining this doll as a thing that causes its target to experience the same things it experiences.

Aaaaand go, Reddit!

1. To some, the prognosis is clear.

Since the voodoo doll will be deformed and crushed under your weight, your body will be too, probably breaking some bones in your body or even crushing your vital organs.

You won’t be able to get up ever again.

– ParsleyJam

2. Some would-be astronomers chimed in.

I propose sitting on your own voodoo doll would create a black hole.

Sitting on your voodoo doll would cause your weight to be applied to yourself. Because you’re on your voodoo doll, the weight will also be applied onto the voodoo doll again then onto you again, then the voodoo doll, then you- infinitely more.

Idk much about physics but infinite weight onto a finite space sounds like it would create a black hole to me

– That_Duck1

3. Is it more about the feeling?

From what I’ve seen in pop culture, things that happen to a voodoo doll only cause the effects of those things to happen to the person, rather than the thing itself. so, if you burn a voodoo doll, the person will get burned and be in extreme pain, but they won’t catch on fire.

likewise, i think if you sat on a voodoo doll, you would be crushed as if by your own weight, but there wouldn’t be any extra pressure applied to the system.

– savushkin_redux

4. Perhaps it’s a “sympathetic link.”

Anything that someone does to said doll happens to you, right? Mmmm, not quite.

The doll is supposed to be a parallel sympathetic link to the You who is alive and breathing–not a physical marionette. If that were true, we’d’ve harnessed these powers to launch people into space, safely. That would be a strange alternate universe, no? Instead, as I said, it’s a sympathetic link. Think of it as a connection via your brain, rather than your body (it’s meant as a spiritual connection). That’s why when someone pricks the doll, the person who the doll is connected to will feel that pain in the area that was ganked. If they THREW that doll across the room, the body the doll is connected to won’t feel the kinetic force of being thrown–they’ll only feel the pain of hitting the wall (or floor, or wherever the kinetic energy comes to a sudden stop).

So. Let’s say that person got ahold of their own voodoo doll. And, carelessly, forgot it was on a chair and sat on it.

Nothing would happen, because basically?They have their spirit back.

The link is more or less neutralized because the connection made through the doll was to your spirit–and what made the connection possible was through use of something that was once part of you. So if anything, sitting on the voodoo doll would destroy the connection between you and the doll, because it would deform or twist it so much that it no longer resembled you.

Now, if someone ELSE sat on the doll…

– RecycledEternity

5. How fit are you?

I would think it would depend on your personal fitness level, some people can lift their own body weight and some can’t.

If you’re strong enough to shove through the force of yourself I would think you could.

– katobabee

6. What’s the reality?

It comes down to how the dolls work in your mind.

I feel like the way voodoo dolls are commonly shown in media, it’s not that they cause a physical force to the victim, more a sensation. Like getting needles stabbed causes pain, not bleeding and puncture wounds.

Based on that, I feel like sitting on your voodoo doll would just cause you to feel pressure or a crushing sensation or shortness of breath, not a physical inability to move.

– tapport

7. What the heck is “thaumic congruence?”

Sure. When your own weight drops on your chest, it’s a pretty sure bet that it will both break your focus, and interrupt the charm of binding.

If someone else is actually maintaining the thaumic congruence, just ask them to give it a rest for a minute.

Be sure to apply betadine or peroxide to your back side if the doll contained any pins.

– GaeasSon

8. Some people think it would be fine.

Yes, you’d be fine, and you would have no problem getting up again. You’d feel no pain, no discomfort.

Most other answers here are misunderstanding what a voodoo doll does. They are trying to suggest that there is an actual physical connection between the doll and the subject of the doll, the person who the doll represents. And therefore, whatever the doll experiences, the subject also experiences.

This is not how a voodoo doll works.

The doll isn’t some New Orleans version of quantum entanglement. It thrives instead on emotions. The only thing that matters is spirit, and intent. Anything you do accidentally to a voodoo doll doesn’t evoke any change in the subject. But even symbolic bad thoughts toward the doll can cause damage to the subject.

This principle is why a voodoo doll doesn’t actually need to be damaged. You can stick a pin in it’s arm, and cause pain, and that pain is just the same whether it’s a tiny pin, or cutting off the arm with scissors. The point is the intention of the voodoo doll’s holder.

– CatOfGrey

9. Is it a loop?

So whatever you do to your voodoo doll, it applies to you.

It might seem like it’s an endless loop, but it’s just whatever your weight is will be dropped on you. so just imagine if you’re like 60 kg, you’ll feel like there’s 60kg weighing you down.

Depending on your strength, if you’re able to move, which a normal person probs could cuz of the adrenaline I guess, then you can get your **s off the voodoo doll and have the extra weight disappeared instantly.

– mae916

10. Some acknowledged their limitations.

I am limited in knowledge of voodoo and magic in general, but as I understand it, focus would be required to activate the doll.

So if you accidentally sat on the doll, nothing should happen, as you were not actively casting a spell on the doll.

Now if you sat on the doll, and focused your energy on the doll, you might feel yourself sitting on yourself, but you eventually would stop focusing on yourself and then you could get up.

– MuadDib1942

11. What about the Minecraft approach?

I’ve been playing Minecraft all night; is it possible to dig a hole coming from underneath the doll, big enough for the doll to fall through but too small for your body, thus freeing you from your own trap?

– WithSugar0nTop

12. It’s all about the ratio.

For your consideration: If the voodoo doll represents you in a ratio to your real body, and you sit on it with your full weight, you will experience that increased weight perhaps as a ratio.

That increased weight then is experienced again by the voodoo doll. This could create a feedback loop of increasing weight.

The consequences of this could range from broken furniture to death, depending on where the voodoo doll was when you sat on it.

– Subpar_Scientist

13. What a sensation.

Voodoo dolls, too my understanding, only inflict sensations. A classic example is when a Voodoo doll is poked with a needle you don’t get a wound just the pain.

So you’d feel the pain of someone of your weight sitting across your entire body but it wouldn’t apply the actual weight just the pain.

So you’d be able to stand up. Even if it apply the pressure of your weight on you, and you couldn’t push it away, you could wiggle to the side until you’re off the doll.

– OhTheHueManatee

14. Under pressure.

The pressure will be applied on yourself milloins and billions of times in some seconds until you destroy your own body and no more pressure is applied

– AtmosphereSweet5130

15. Then there’s this approach…

Yes, because voodoo dolls aren’t supernatural

– Roskal

Dumb ol’ rationalists coming in here and ruining the fun like usual.

But what do you think of this?

Tell us in the comments.

The post People Debate What Would Happen if You Sat on Your Own Voodoo Doll appeared first on UberFacts.

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12 People Share the Conspiracy Theories That They Believe

Do you believe in conspiracy theories?

Somebody on Reddit asked the questions: “What conspiracy theory do you believe to be true? What evidence led you to this conclusion?”

And boy did the people deliver!

Enjoy these 13 VERY questionable conspiracy theories… and please don’t believe everything you read. Okay?

1. The real conspiracy…

I’m starting to think that the really stupid conspiracy theories (vaccines causing autism, flat earth, lizard people, etc.) are intentionally spread by propaganda groups and troll farms.

They don’t care what stupid shit you believe, but they are very interested to know that you’re a gullible mark who will believe anything with no evidence, and won’t do research with authorities on the matter to find the truth.

If you want to spread misinformation, look for the people who do it as a hobby.

2. Oh snap….

The 10 year challenge all over social media is actually a way to record and gather more facial recognition data

11. The strange killing of John Lang.

The Fresno Police killed John Lang.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the story, so forgive me if I get something wrong. John Lang was a journalist who was very critical of the FPD. He wrote an article about how the police went into poor parts of the city and pulled cars over that parked in free parking lots or something like that. Eventually, he started noticing people watching his house, “FBI style.”

One night he asked on Facebook if he could stay in someone’s home for the night, as he knew the police were going to kill him that night. After no one let him, his house caught on fire.

3. F is for Fake

I’ve always speculated that a lot of priceless artwork and historical documents are actually replicas or copies.

Obviously a painting by a world-famous artist using a very specific technique would be very hard to fake, and I don’t think that every art scholar in the world is paid off in some grand conspiracy.

Rather, I just think that either the national treasures never left their vaults or that some national treasures actually were lost to history but they were copied.

4. The OJ theory…

O.J. Simpson didn’t do it, it was Jason Simpson.

Nicole Brown was nearly decapitated and Ron Goldman was stabbed 20+ times and had numerous defensive wounds. The prosecution claimed the injuries were consistent with two knives being used and produced a stiletto knife -good for stabbing but not cutting- and a Swiss Army knife -not really good for hurting anyone other than yourself. O.J. had only a small cut on his hand with no other evidence of having been in a fight. The only blood found in his home were a few drops of his own blood which were contaminated with a preservative used in blood draws.

Jason did it: Means: Jason was employed as a sous-chef and had his own knife set, and also owned a double-edged combat knife.

Motive: Jason was cooking alone at his restaurant that night and had specifically invited Nicole to come see him cook. She stood him up and went to Mezzaluna where Ron Goldman worked. Jason was known to be bothered by Nicole seeing men other than his father.

Opportunity: Jason’s timecard that night was handwritten for a time much later than when the restaurant shut down. His alibi changed multiple times, but the last time anyone can definitely account for him is around 9:30 that night.

The kicker? The day after the murders, O.J. retained one of L.A.’s top criminal defense attorneys for Jason and did not hire his own defense attorney until several days later.

5. The Unabomber was made by the government?!

When Ted Kaczynski (the unabomber) was at Harvard, he participated in a brutal psychological experiment led by professor Henry Murray. The experiment lasted for three years and by many accounts they seemed to have an extreme impact on Kaczynski’s psyche. I think this experiment was part of the CIA’s MKUltra project and destabilized Kaczynski enough to where he eventually went on his reign of terror of sending bombed packages around the country.

During the MKUltra project, the CIA collaborated with university professors on these mind-control experiments but a lot of the documentation was destroyed when people started to look into it.

TL;DR: The unabomber participated in an experiment that was a part of the MKULtra project that eventually led to him becoming a mass-murderer.

6. They’re listening….

All my devices listen in on me.

The other day I was arguing with my Dad about some chicken I thought had gone off (it was frozen for about a month so we weren’t too sure but my Dad was insistent that it was still edible).

Dad decided to ask Google, and low and behold the related searches even from the first letter were: “Is chicken edible after being frozen for a month” and “How long can you freeze chicken before it goes off”.

Also, my Mum and I use this tactic where if we need to ring up a company about something and it puts us in a queue, we swear at it. It then puts you on a priority list and you don’t have to wait as long.

Kinda sketchy on the company’s behalf.

7. What goes on up there?

I believe there is a ridiculous amount of pedophilia among the upper echelons of society.

Whether it is uncovered in the Catholic Church, British parliament, Hollywood, Washington DC, Saudi Arabia, the mainstream media doesn’t seem interested in shining a light on the networks and procurers who allow this practice to thrive.

Remember when Sacha Baron Cohen inadvertently uncovered an underage sex service in las vegas? Imagine the demand required for this heinous practice to exist. Offered by the concierge no less.

Who is the mystery party requesting secrecy in Jeff Epstein’s sex trafficking suit?

Why was Johnny Rotten banned from the BBC for attempting to expose Jimmy Savile for sickening crimes against children?

These types of stories are far too common, and they do not receive the attention they deserve.

8. Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 wasn’t an accident.

There were definitely external forces that catalyzed its disappearance.

The flight path was diverted many times and there was a lot of shady stuff about some of the passengers and the pilot of Flight 370.

We may never know unless the plane is found.

9. The never-ending war…

That the USA deliberately gets into an armed conflict every decade or so for the purpose of ensuring that at any given time, they always have a critical mass of soldiers with actual combat experience.

They get in a lot of conflicts, and it seems highly probable that the leadership of a country that spends so much on national defense would highly value the institutional knowledge that comes from that kind of continuity of practical experience, even if it comes at a high human cost.

10. Michael?!?

Sony killed Michael Jackson.

He owned the rights to the Beatles discography.

After he died, Sony had remastered versions of every Beatles album available days after MJ’s estate sold the rights to Sony.

There’s no way they could have remastered the albums and published the CDs in that short amount of time.

11. The art market…

I believe that modern/minimalistic art exists solely for money laundering. It’s just a way for rich people to move money around. There’s a reason why paintings of plain geometric shapes sell for millions of dollars, and it’s not because the buyers are really into shapes.

It’s actually more of a loophole than a conspiracy. All countries, and most cities have “free port” zones. Free ports are areas, usually near a port where goods can be stored duty free because they are ultimately bound for another country.

HOWEVER, these “free ports” can also be used to store art. Art with incredible value, crated away never to been seen again. These free ports become untaxable, untraceable banks for the ultra wealthy.

This is a real thing.

I wanna be an oligarch, i hate having to play by the rules

12. And finally… this insane one about the Titanic

The Titanic/Olympic conspiracy.

It has credibility because there is photographic evidence. It’s really one of the only conspiracy theories I put much belief in.

The sister ships (and their third counterpart, the Britannic) were owned by White Star Line. The Olympic was put into service in June, 1911. She collided with another ship, the HMS Hawke, in September of 1911 and both ships were badly damaged. The accident was a financial disaster for White Star Line, as they were found to be liable for the accident and had to pay for the damages to both ships and legal fees for court cases associated with the accident. Repairs on the Olympic took nearly two months and parts intended for the Titanic, which was still being built during this time, had to be given to the Olympic instead. Only a few weeks after being returned to service, the Olympic suffered another minor incident where one of the propellers broke off and pieces intended for the Titanic were once again cannibalized.

At this point, the Olympic was looking like more and more of a money-drain for the White Star Line, though its achievement in not actually sinking despite a major accident that should have sunk it cemented the Olympic-class liner’s reputation as “unsinkable”, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.

The Titanic was finally finished and ready to leave port on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, having been delayed while new parts were made and delivered to replace the ones needed for the Olympic, and from there we all know the story. She went first to France, and then to Ireland, and then began her trek across the Atlantic to New York, during which she struck an iceberg and after nearly two hours, sank, taking 1,500 souls with her to a cold, watery grave that would not be seen again by human eyes for nearly a hundred years.

The Olympic went on to have a 24-year career as a successful ocean liner. She served during World War 1 where she earned the nickname Old Reliable for her impenetrable hull, and then in 1919 she was re-outfitted to be a civilian passenger ship and served as an ocean liner until 1935, when she was retired from the fleet. Her ownership changed hands several times and she was eventually dismantled and sold for scrap metal.

But what if it wasn’t the Titanic that sank? What if it was actually the Olympic? What if it was a ploy to remove a faulty ship that was costing them more money than she was bringing in for White Star Line and cash in on her million-pound insurance policy?

So here is the conspiracy theory. At some point after the Titanic was completed, they switched the identities of the ships. The new “Titanic” was actually the Olympic and the “Olympic” was actually the brand-spanking-new Titanic, fresh from the construction yard with zero problems and zero history. They intended for the “Titanic” to suffer some sort of failure that would result in the destruction of the problem ship so they could collect the insurance money. I doubt they intended to also cause the deaths of 1,500 people; the events that transpired which led to the sinking of the “Titanic” possibly happened purely by chance and the iceberg wasn’t part of their plan (i.e., they didn’t hire the captain to specifically ram the iceberg to sink the ship or anything like that). They probably had another plan involving the repairs that had already been made on the ship when it collided with the HMS Hawke.

In any case, it wasn’t really the Titanic that left port on April 10, 1912 — it was the Olympic.

After the sinking of the “Titanic,” White Star Line received a tidy sum of £1,000,000 in insurance money (or £89,289,575 in today’s money). This, of course, ruined the insurer, Lloyd’s of London. There’s an additional conspiracy theory that American financier and banker J. P. Morgan was in on this whole scheme; his company, J. P. Morgan & Co., financed the International Mercantile Marine Company in the hopes of becoming rich off of sea travel, but this turned out to be a bad investment because of the unpredictable nature of sea travel and travelers themselves. J. P. Morgan or one of his associates may have schemed with White Star Line, who was a subsidiary of this IMMC, in order to bankrupt the IMMC and allow J. P. Morgan & Co. to withdraw from the IMMC without breaking a contract. I cannot provide evidence for this beyond speculation.

However, I can provide evidence that backs up my claim that the two ships were switched and it was the Olympic who sank, not the Titanic.

This is an image of the RMS Olympic in drydock (I am currently unable to locate a picture of the Olympic while under construction with the name clear so you can be sure it definitely is the Olympic — I can only assume such a photo doesn’t exist):

http://www.greatships.net/scans/PC-OL35.jpg

Check out the very top row of portholes in the white railing. Count them. Look closely at the grouping of the last five portholes and how they are clustered with two close together, one set apart, and two more close together.

This is an image of the RMS Titanic being built:

http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2014/01/titanic-bow-construction.jpg

Look at the top-most portholes in the railing on the Titanic. Count them too. Look at the last five portholes and see that they are evenly spaced apart.

This is a picture of the “Titanic” before leaving on its maiden voyage. Check out the portholes in question:

https://timmyatt.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/titanic-harbour.jpg

Here is the “Olympic” in New York after the sinking of the “Titanic”:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Olympic_in_New_York_cropped.jpg/1280px-Olympic_in_New_York_cropped.jpg

There is no reason why the ship builders would have changed the portholes on the Titanic when they were nearly done building it. That piece was not one of the pieces cannibalized from the Titanic to repair the Olympic that would have needed to be replaced by a different piece. The only answer is that the ship in the final picture, which is the ship that left port on April 10, 1912, and was met with a terrible fate near Newfoundland, was not the Titanic, but actually the Olympic. You can find pictures from newspapers further supporting this, as they clearly show the name of the ship and the wrong number/orientation of portholes.

I doubt we’ll ever know one way or another, since the wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic is quickly being covered with sediment and will be completely buried and inaccessible soon and pieces of the ship that was retired in 1935 and dismantled in 1937 are both difficult to find and difficult to authenticate, and anybody who might be able to either confirm or deny this theory are all dead.

If that last one didn’t satisfy your thirst for conspiracy theories, I don’t know what will!

So… do you believe in any of these? Have a better one to share?

Let us know in the comments!

The post 12 People Share the Conspiracy Theories That They Believe appeared first on UberFacts.