this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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189
What's the simplest thing humans are too dumb to grasp? (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by TheBananaKing@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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You ever see a dog that's got its leash tangled the long way round a table leg, and it just cannot grasp what the problem is or how to fix it? It can see all the components laid out in front of it, but it's never going to make the connection.

Obviously some dog breeds are smarter than others, ditto individual dogs - but you get the concept.

Is there an equivalent for humans? What ridiculously simple concept would have aliens facetentacling as they see us stumble around and utterly fail to reason about it?

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I get its basic shit that’s over my head.

It's over the head of everyone. That's why I shared it here.

Likewise would 0.888… be .9?

No, but 0.899... = 0.9. This only applies to the repeating sequences of the last digit of your base. We're using base 10 so it got to be 9.

If I have 100 dogs, and I split them into thirds I’ve got 3 lots of 33 dogs and 1 dog left over. So the issue is with my original idea of splitting the dogs into thirds, because clearly I haven’t got 100% in 3 lots because 1 of them is by itself.

Then you split the leftover dog into 10 parts. Why 10? Because you use base 10. Three of those parts go to each lot of dogs... and you still have 1/10 dog left.

Then you do it again. And you have 1/100 dog left. And again, and again, infinitely.

If you take that "infinitely" into account, then you can say that each lot of dogs has exactly one third of the original amount.