2343: Mathematical Symbol Fight
| Mathematical Symbol Toys |
| Oh no, a musician just burst in through the door confidently twirling a treble clef. Title text: Oh no, a musician just burst in through the door confidently twirling a treble clef. |
Explanation
This comic imagines which mathematical symbols would be good in a fight if they were made corporeal in two (or three) dimensions.
Generally, objects with longer reach and pointier ends wound up on the right ("more useful") side of the scale, and symbols with less reach and more curves wound towards the left ("less useful") side. A straight line is farthest to the "more plushie" side; however, the straight line does not appear to be any thicker or thinner, or pointier, than any of the other lines that would make it more "useful" (It should be noted that this chart seems to fall afoul of what Eliezer Yudkowsky (who also wrote HPMoR) calls the intent to kill: that humans tend to define "play toys" and "useful" as causing some form of bodily harm on their opponent despite survival and purely defensive strategies being an equally valid goals.).
Below the chart, with the symbols listed in order of usefulness, eight characters wield eight of the symbols. See the table below for the meaning of each symbol.
The comic invokes surreal humor by suggesting that mathematical symbols could be handled as physical objects in the real world. Another component of the humor is the implication that it is useful to prepare to use mathematical symbols in a fight, even though mathematicians, who use mathematical symbols, usually do not conduct their debates violently (though some stories suggest that Hippasus was killed by his fellow Pythagoreans for his proof that irrational numbers exist), and even if they did, they wouldn't use large reproductions of their symbols as weapons.
Note that Black Hat and Danish are using two of the most useful symbols, and appear to have teamed up against their opponents, resulting in an unfair advantage they would both absolutely exploit.
The title text refers to a treble clef, which is not a mathematical symbol but rather a musical symbol. The note of concern in the text suggests musical symbols may be viewed in such toys as exotic or especially dangerous. See also the last entry in the table below.
Here is a list of symbols and their explanation, from left to right (by rightmost edge) : ℝ θ ∅ ∞ > ∪ ∝ ∈ ∀ π ∂ + ≠ Ψ # ~ △ ζ ⇒ ⋅ ℵ Γ ρ √ → ∮ ∫ ⊥ ⇀ ––
| Symbol | Meaning | Notes on using in toys |
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