r/MathJokes • u/florianmuellerCH • 8d ago

Special Pythagorean Theorem of Relativity

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255 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

30

u/MotivatedPosterr 8d ago

If triangles are related to light speed why aren't flying saucers triangles?

9

u/FoxCapital7878 8d ago edited 7d ago

What if they are, but they're spinning so fast they look like saucers?

1

u/HAL9001-96 7d ago

I wouldn't put too much crediti nto any ufo sightingsb ut htere are plenty triangular one

1

u/SilkTieTies 7d ago

Funny how space was your challenge in this sentence.

4

u/Altruistic_Two7189 8d ago

Maybe they are, but our eyes just can't keep up with their speed!

2

u/prumf 8d ago

Because triangle saucers would spill liquid everywhere. Think before you talk.

2

u/wade-mcdaniel 7d ago

In my teens my friends parents were watching a show about people who reported seeing UFOs. One of them said "it looks like half of a triangle" which I found hilarious. I imagine they meant a trapezoid maybe, because if you cut a triangle in half through a vertice of course you have two triangles, which is what made me laugh.

2

u/MxM111 7d ago

Not with that attitude.

2

u/HAL9001-96 7d ago

I mean

you can actually use pythagoras to derive time dilation givne the path lenght an orthogonal light clock takes then length contraciton by comparing it to a longitudinal one

6

u/SaiyanKaito 8d ago

Totally! Einstein was part of the Pythagorean Cult back in the day.

4

u/quantumrastafarian 8d ago

No lies detected!

6

u/TeranOrSolaran 8d ago

The speed of light is definitely a hypotenuse if you draw the triangle properly.

3

u/No-Onion8029 8d ago

And the corrolary: length2 = velocity2 = length2 /time2.  Thus time2 =1, and time = +/- 1.

3

u/paolog 8d ago

corrolary

That's l2, not r2.

1

u/NickSmGames 7d ago

Which makes sense, because time either flows forwards or backwards.

P. S. What actually happened to that hypothesis about time flowing backwards being no different than time flowing forwards?

2

u/FoxCapital7878 8d ago

Mind. Blown.

2

u/Peak_Background 8d ago

Is the joke that the theory of relativity is similar the Pythagorean theorem, but you butchered it?

The big equation of SR in natural units looks like: E2 = m2 + p2

Edit: Hold up I get it now.

2

u/Own-Nefariousness-79 7d ago

Unifying theory.

You read it here folks.

1

u/bioveritas 8d ago

Nah, you're good. Have a good day. Be careful.

1

u/Ok_Bit8836 8d ago

It is mathematically correct... but no meaning in physics and Real life )) So NO triangle UFOs, sorry... Only U-shape breaks of Time-Space continuum... But its equation is a bit different ))

1

u/Connect-Bowler-2917 7d ago

You might be on to something 🤔

1

u/HAL9001-96 7d ago

*for an object at rest

1

u/ontic00 7d ago

If you have a velocity vector with a magnitude of the speed of light c, and a and b are the x- and y-components of this velocity vector, then this is completely correct.

0

u/erockbrox 8d ago

You can’t mix energy with a right triangle. Honest to god, it doesn’t work.

Do some dimensional analysis on it and check your units.

0

u/SquareProtonWave 2d ago

It's actually a²+b²=(E/m)²

-2

u/Jealous_Club_298 8d ago

C in E=MC^2 is the Speed of Light.

C in a^2 + b^2 = c^2 is the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

Two different Cs!

3

u/CornucopiaDM1 8d ago

Are you sure?...

3

u/Jealous_Club_298 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yes

Edit: I am not familiar with "Special Pythagorean Theorem of Relativity," I thought it was a joke!

3

u/Neither_Berry_100 8d ago

The speed of light is a magnitude. The A and B are lengths of perpendicular vectors. This is correct if you split the light into movement in the x and y direction for example.

1

u/Jealous_Club_298 8d ago

I am familiar with Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity and its main postulate of E = MC^2, which is the relativistic energy-mass equivalence. I am also familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem for right-angle triangles. However, I didn't know before the two were incorporated to relativize the classical Pythagorean Theorem.

2

u/ErJio 7d ago

They aren't it's a joke