A microblog post by @kareem_carr saying “as soon as i saw they were using asterisks for multiplication symbols, i knew we were in trouble”, with an image from the “Office of the United States Trade Representative (Executive Office of the President)” showing the mathematical formula $\Delta \tau_i = \frac{x_i - m_i}{\varepsilon * \varphi * m_i}$. The formula show asterisks (*) instead of multiplication signs (×).
That’s no multiplication,
they just dereferenced the entire US economy.
I don’t get the significance. How should the formula be represented?
The only times anyone would use the asterisk as multiplication symbol are
- they are doing some fancy math and it’s not the same kind of number multiplication we’re familiar with
- they are on a computer, the keyboard does not have a (×) key, and they don’t know how to typeset it (
\timesin LaTex), so they just use the asterisk instead
The US government falls in the second category.
there is a third case:
- they are using a programming language
Or me, doing math for school and being too lazy to type /cdot every time
Most mathematicians, engineers, and scientists don’t use the asterisk symbol for multiplication. Most don’t write any symbol as it’s implicit. If they do use a symbol they would use a dot or x symbol (though never an actual x). In mathematics, the asterisk is mostly only used to represent convolutions.
Most common:
abc
Less common:
a • b • c
a × b × c
Never:
a * b * c
While to most people this doesn’t really matter (and should feel free using * for multiplication). It shows someone with minimal formal experience in mathematics using this formula
Yeah, asterisk to indicate multiplication is much, much more common amongst coders.
… And script kiddie DOGE interns.
There really isn’t any. It’s just a huge nitpick. * is commonly used for multiplication, especially in online contexts in order to avoid confusing multiplication with the letter x when wider symbols aren’t available.
no one who would have any experience in the field would write it like that.
it’s just a sign that the people who did it have no idea what they are doing.
it’s just a sign that the people who did it have no idea what they are doing.
We’re in no shortage of those signs
Just guessing but real mathematicians would know how to properly build the formula. I guess in higher maths we use the ‘x’ rather than ‘*’.
Not a big deal but may show that the people doing it have no idea what they are doing.
Typically you’d use either nothing (just put the symbols next to each other) or in cases where that would be unclear, you’d use the centered dot ⋅
There’s also the “0.25 × 4” thing. ε is set to 0.25, and φ is set to 4. No nuance, no thought about how the economy actually works. Just make it so they can pretend they’re thinking about it how demand will change.
I have a feeling that they made it up after the fact because the whole point of ε and φ there should be that they come with their own formulas that depend on the demand itself, instead of just being set to a constant value. I don’t imagine a straight line is a good enough model for the world economy, especially when fucking around with stuff that can implode it.
But ChatGPT does not know that, and especially won’t expand on that if you ask it “make my formula seem more scientific”.
So epsilon and phi are just constants that cancel each other out? Wow. This is legit the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard, narrowly beating Narendra Modi’s (a+b)^2 debacle (he said that the 2ab was ‘extra’). Fucking illiterate, aren’t they?
Anyone here speaks Greek ? What does it say?
direct translation: “you’re fucked”
