this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] nairui@piefed.social 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

fossilesque you’re one of my fav posters

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago
[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think we want a world where there are any sort of infinity of people, and I don't think a tram is the solution to revert a world from having its infinities to having a finite number

I also see practicality problems in tying even a small infinity of people to railway tracks, as that requires yet another infinity of people to hold people down, and another infinity of people people to do the tying (as well as the infinities of people to do the tying and holding on the other track) and all of those people will have to be fed and watered with infinite amounts of food and water (some infinities of people for infinite time), the infinities of people tying people down would need some education, implying infinite teachers

It's a logistic nightmare

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

If the next person getting tied down holds down the person currently being tied down then this could work. I’m sure they’d be game so that’s fine.

[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 day ago

The first one, because people will die at a slower rate.

The second one, because the density will cause the trolley to slow down sooner, versus the first one where it will be able to pick up speed again between each person. Also, more time to save people down the rail with my handy rope cutting knife.

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is there a way to take both routes?

[–] ours@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Hit the hand brake and drift that sucker.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Running in the 90s intensifies

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

with my knack for drifting i'll miss both and hit something else entirely even within this imaginary scenario

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You dont have to since the set of all positive integers belongs to the set of all real numbers, you actually hit both tracks by just taking the lower track.

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

never doubt my ability to mess up the unmessable. i just might stumble into disabling clipping and end up falling forever.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it was numberphile, or maybe vsauce, who did a video on infinities. It was really interesting. I learnt a lot, then forgot it all.

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

Ah yes, I remember my eyes glazing over as things got too complicated to fit through my thick skull

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 30 points 1 day ago

First, I start moving people to hotel rooms...

[–] nuko147@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I thought that the correct answer to these was making a loop on the right, merging the lines.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Unfortunately it's hard to join the tag end of one infinity to the tag end of another infinity to allow traversing both completely

I don't really think it's even sensible to talk about the tag end of an infinity. The bitten/bitter end is at 1, the tag end at infinity in this mental model. I feel that is the correct way to use rope terms for imagined embodied infinities as the small end is clearly bitten to (tied to) zero while the other end is free

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

The answer is multi track drifting

[–] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 day ago

No, we need a second trolley.

[–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Top case is not the smallest infinite; going for prime number would save a lot of time for a lot of people before they die

[–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 day ago

The set of all primes is the same size infinity as the set of all positive integers because you could create a way to map one to the other aka you can count to the nth prime. Reals are different in that there are an infinite number of real between any two reals which means there's no possible way to map them.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 9 points 1 day ago

The set of primes and the set of integers have the same size, you can map a prime to every integer.

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[–] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 97 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (10 children)

In the top one you will never actually kill an infinite number of people, just approach it linearly. The bottom one will kill an infinite amount of people in finite time.

Edit: assuming constant speed of the train.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm going bottom.

NOT LIKE THAT. Not like sexually. I just mean I want to kill all the people on the bottom with my train.

[–] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 39 points 2 days ago

Too late! Now bend...

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[–] chunes@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good to know there are roughly 6 real numbers for every integer

If there are child real numbers then you can fit more.

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 53 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Bottom.

Killing one person for every real number implies there’s a way to count all real numbers one by one. This is a contradiction, because real numbers are uncountable. By principle of explosion, I’m Superman, which means I can stop the train by my super powers. QED

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 17 points 2 days ago

Wait until your league of super heroes is up against the axis of choice.

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[–] Harvey656@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean, the bottom. The trolley simply would stop, get gunked up by all the guts and the sheer amount of bodies so close together. Checkmate tolley.

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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I pull the lever, if the cart goes over the real numbers it will instantly kill an infinite amount of people and continue killing an infinite amount of people for every moment for the rest of existence.

If I pull the lever a finite amount of people will die instantly and slowly over time tending twords infinity but due to the linear nature of movement it would never actually reach Infinity even if there are an infinite number of people tied to the track a finite amount is all that could ever die.

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[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Use the fact that a set people corresponding to the real numbers are laying in a single line to prove that the real numbers are countable, thus throwing the mathematics community into chaos, and using this as a distraction to sabotage the trolley and save everybody.

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The second one. It'll be a bit rough, but overall should be a smoother ride for the occupants.

[–] nathanjent@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

An infinite amount of people on the track implies that the track is infinitely long. If that is not the case and the track is a normal length then the sudden addition of all that bio-mass in a finite space will cause a gravitational collapse. But will the collapse start on the first track or the second? Either way I hope you saved your game because you might lose your progress.

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[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I ignore the question and go to the IT and maintenance teams to put a series of blocks, physical and communication-system-based, between the maths and philosophy departments. Attempts to breach containment will be met with deadly force.

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The top one, because time is still a factor.

Sure, infinite people will die either way, but that is only after infinite time.

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[–] madjo@feddit.nl 2 points 1 day ago

Multilane drifting!

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