/sci/ - Science & Math

Mother:
>Discourages me from doing maths because she thinks it will induce mental illness - photograph wildlife instead.

>Explaining interesting probability stuff (Monty Hall problem etc)
>Ask her to guess what the probability is for certain problem
>Standard guesses are 0 or 1
>She guesses 75%
>Explain that a probability is a number between 0 and 1.
>"...but there are no numbers between 0 and 1."

>A bazillion is a number

>Thinks that the faster you go during a fixed length journey the more times your wheels will spin

>"So how do you think the universe was created?"
>"Like swirling gas that came together wasn't it?"

>Explain what a complex number is
>Laugh at me and say "Don't you mathematicians have anything better to do?"

>Explain that if we had an infinite plane of random pixels of RGB there would be a picture of us talking in it, not once but infinitely many times and in infinitely many different slight variations (wearing each others clothes etc.)
>"Anon, you should stop thinking about stuff like that or you'll go mad."
>Get same response when I explain about fractals

>Doesn't think fractions are numbers
>Maybe she's thinking just of natural numbers, ask if 4/2 is a number.
>Nope
>Explain fractions are just the notation for a result of a division - doesn't understand

>Explain that we can prove a certain things exists and not be able to say exactly what it is
>Doesn't believe me - "Sounds like what religious fundamentalists say"
>Fucking constructivism

Cont..

In the US...
<span class="math">P(In jail) = 2,418,352/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(Black)=38,929,319/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(Black | In Jail) = (4,347+260)/100,000 [/spoiler]
Bayes' theorem:
<span class="math">P(In Jail| Black) = \frac{P(Black | In Jail) P(In Jail)}{P(Black)} =0.00286194 [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(White) = 223,553,265/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(White | In Jail) = (678+91)/10,000 [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(In Jail | White) = \frac{P(White | In Jail) P(In Jail)}{P(White)}=0.000831888 [/spoiler]
<span class="math"> \frac{P(In Jail| Black)}{(In Jail | White)} =3.4403 [/spoiler]

You are 3 times more likely to go to jail in you're black.

In the US...
<span class="math">P(In jail) = 2,418,352/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(Black)=38,929,319/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(Black | In Jail) = (4,347+260)/100,000 [/spoiler]
Bayes' theorem:
<span class="math">P(In Jail| Black) = \frac{P(Black | In Jail) P(In Jail)}{P(Black)} ~0.00286194 [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(White) = 223,553,265/(309*10^6) [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(White | In Jail) = (678+91)/10,000 [/spoiler]
<span class="math">P(In Jail | White) = \frac{P(White | In Jail) P(In Jail)}{P(White)~0.000831888} [/spoiler]
<span class="math"> \frac{P(In Jail| Black)}{(In Jail | White)} ~3.4403 [/spoiler]

You are 3 times more likely to go to jail in you're black.