https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/promise-2
Alt text
This is more commonly known as the median voter theorem.
Bonus panel
I will commit genocide +1?
🤔
I mean that’s essentially what the republicans offered…
Well that is basically what Trump offered and it worked
Aaaand this is the problem with two-party system
Three party system : I will do everything party A+2 and party B+1
Unfortunately party A&B spent the last 4 decades destroying the education system so no one knows algebra anymore (including me so I might have done that wrong).
Very well: I promise to kill zero puppies
Opponent: I'll pay a gang to beat me 9/10ths the way to death
He's going the distance!
He's going for speed!
She's all alone (all alone!) in her time of need
The Political Price is Right!
Glad you were here for us to make this comment.
He's got my vote
And my bow
And my axe!
Wait... If you add all the numbers together, don't you get 0? Since for every number you're also adding the negative.
Huh that would make him the most truthful politician... What a paradox
You're probably gonna hate this, but I think it actually matters how you add them up. Cuz think if you add 0 + 1 + 2 - 1 + 3 - 2 + 4... that pattern will always be positive. (And this is assuming we're only using integers)
And this is why I don't ask the mathematicians in my life to sum up infinite lists of integers anymore. Smh
Technically (not really) sum of all positive integers results in -1/12, which is due to the nature of infinite series and MATH I no longer understand. So it stands to reason, that if you add a -1 multiplier and sum results of both series together, you would get 0! Approximately.
But 0! is 1.
I also can't remember the maths, but iirc the -1/12 value is based on a faulty assumption somewhere in the calculation (probably dividing by 0 at some point)
The faulty assumption in the more naive approach was treating operations on infinite series in the same way you would treat operations on finite sums. The order of elements being added is important, as it does change the series, and the naive approach based on putting 0 in between each numbers like 0 + 1 + 0 + 2 + ... which was incorrect. There are ways to prove it does sum up to -1/12 from what I remember though, it's just the addition of 0's that's bad.
6 minute abs
Posts and discussion about the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Hugo Award-winning author Zach Weinersmith (and related works)
https://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
New comics posted whenever they get posted on the site, and old comics posted every day until we catch up in a decade or so