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My previous/alt account is yetAnotherUser@feddit.de which will be abandoned soon.

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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2024

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  • I don’t think that’s why kids hate it. Rather, teachers fail to explain the underlying motivations, the reasoning and the purpose which makes math feel like arbitrary decisions.

    I’d argue math is much more uncertain than other subjects. What’s the purpose of the endoplasmic reticulum in your cells? Just memorize the textbook. Find all X such that [statement] is true? You better have some creativity! Or a lot, depending on the problem.

    Some accompanying evidence for uncertainty: https://xkcd.com/2117/




  • I’ve found a proper approximation after some time and some searching.

    Since the binomial distribution has a very large n, we can use the central limit theorem and treat it as a normal distribution. The mean would be obviously 500 billion, the standard deviation is √(n * p * (1-p)) which results in 500,000.

    You still cannot plug that into WA unfortunately so we have to use a workaround.

    You would calculate it manually through:

    Φ(b) - Φ(a), with
    b = (510 billion - mean) / (standard deviation) = 20,000
    and
    a = (490 billion - mean) / (standard deviation) = -20,000
    and
    Φ(x) = 0.5 * (1 + erf(x/√2))
    

    erf(x) is the error function which has the neat property: erf(-x) = -erf(x)

    You could replace erf(x) with an integral but this would be illegible without LaTeX.

    Therefore:

    Φ(20,000) - Φ(-20,000)
    = 0.5 * [ erf(20,000/√2) - erf(-20,000/2) ]
    = erf(20,000/√2)
     erf(14,142)
    

    WolframAlpha will unfortunately not calculate this either.

    However, according to Wikipedia an approximation exists which shows that:

    1 - erf(x) ≈ [(1 - e^(-Ax))e^(-x²)] / (Bx√π)
    

    And apparently A = 1.98 and B = 1.135 give good approximations for all x≥0.

    After failing to get a proper approximation from WA again and having to calculate every part by itself, the result is very roughly around 1 - 10^(-86,857,234).

    So it is very safe to assume you will lose between 49% and 51% of your gut bacteria. For a more realistic 10 trillion you should replace a and b above with around ±63,200 but I don’t want to bother calculating the rest and having WolframAlpha tell me my intermediary steps are equal to zero.






  • Why then do countries with existing left parties and proportional representation elect further and further right-wing parties in Europe?

    It’s simple: They promise easy solutions for complicated problems. Banning immigration will fix all crime and the economy, opposing LGBTQ+ rights will ensure a return of the better olden days, climate change is nothing to be worried about etc etc

    And even people depending on social support will gladly shoot themselves in their feet if it means someone else will have it worse.










  • I don’t know, I feel like anon’s advice is misguided at the very least.

    It assumes that OOP is more or less choosing to be this way, instead of struggling with issues outside their control, be it self-image issues, anxiety, depression, money or a myriad of other things. Depending on the particukar combination and severity, anon’s situation may not change for a very long time, including forever.

    I believe proper advice would focus on making them accept their situation. It’s OK to have no friends or partner(s). They are not a necessity in order to live a meaningful life. Perhaps it won’t be the most meaningful life possible but it is certainly possible to find meaning while feeling lonely. Though finding a job is somewhat important, especially if they live in countries without social welfare, they should focus on that for a bit.

    I don’t have any positive stories to share on how I overcame the issues anon is facing - considering I’m in my early 20s and have nearly all the same one’s. But acceptance has helped me cope with my situation in a not unhealthy way and reduced some of the pain of loneliness and self-doubt.