/sci/ - Science & Math

The most useful equation is probably Pythagorean. The least is probably some quantum mechanic bullshit that's completely irrelevant to my life.

>>7299386
sorry to burst your bubble but pythagorean theorem is pretty useless in your everyday life as well :^)

>>7299410
Not true, I was accosted by an obtuse on my way home from a concert a few years ago and a few quick calculations made it clear which angle I'd have the least trouble passing around

>>7299414

>>7299410

What if I wanted to build a roof on a house?

Probably euler's

>>7299554
pay someone to do it
also
you know people had houses before pythagoras

>>7299232
code: f'(x) = (f(x+h) - f(x))/h

Most useful:

Pythagorean

Least useful:

x/0 =

>>7299923
The pythagorean theorem was actually known before pythagoras and, surprise, the first people to know it were also the first people to build cities.

>>7299927
Knowing it and learning it are two different things.

early cavemen used etchings in stone to provide data for measuring distances to create structures. Pythagorus is the author of a natural phenomena, it doesn't mean he knew how complex it was or how useful it would be today, neither did the architects before him, but when it was first USED it was used by people who were intuitive.

Intuition is not a discovery until it is written down, until then, it's just a smart idea. This is why people built houses in different places in the world simultaneously while they may not have ever communicated the same idea, it was just what you would refer to as common sense.

I'm not contradicting you though, I just wonder what your definition of 'knowing it' is

>>7299973
> I just wonder what your definition of 'knowing it' is

My definition is pretty mundane here, the Babylonian already knew the relationship a^2+b^2=c^2 where a,b, and c are the length of the sides of a square rectangle.

We tend to assume the Greeks, and then Renaissance European, invented everything in maths, but a lot was already used by astronomers and geometers way before that (to measure up land property, make buildings, etc.).

<span class="math">| \sum \limits_i x_i | \leq \sum \limits_i |x_i|[/spoiler]

>>7299232
most useful
dy/dx = lim h->0 (f(x+h)-f(x)/h)

If I had to choose a least useful would probably be...
∆= b^2 - 4ac

>>7300127
> ∆= b^2 - 4ac
use it for determining if a system is cricitically/under/overdamped

>>7300129
can't you tell just by looking at the graph?

>>7300143
I hate looking at graphs...I don't know why I'm in controls

>>7300129
It'd be alot easier if you learned how to redefine your constants and see that its reducible to ∆= 1-γ^2

>Most useful:
dy/dx = lim h->0 (f(x+h)-f(x)/h)

>Least useful
x/0 = not defined