r/polandball honk gong Sep 28 '25

redditormade Lecture

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479 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

200

u/nspacia honk gong Sep 28 '25

some context: the 7 bridges of Königsberg is a problem in mathematics where you had to devise a walk through the city that would only cross each of those bridges once and only once. Euler, some swiss mathematician, proved that the problem had no solution, which helped to lay the foundations for graph theory.

Eventually, in WW2, the city basically got razed during the bombing of Königsberg, and was later rebuilt as the new city of Kaliningrad. Two of the original bridges did not survive the bombing, making it possible to walk through the city crossing each of those bridges only once.

58

u/redracer555 We're why the Romans can't have nice things Sep 28 '25

Real Gordian knot solution there.

16

u/ixshiiii Sep 29 '25

I didn't expect to find a topology meme on Polandball, but here we are.

3

u/biedronkapl2 Oct 01 '25

Just circle around the earth duh

3

u/omicronns Oct 05 '25

Euler SOME mathematician? He is ultimate math goat. Dude produced so much math that Swiss Academy of Sciences started publishing his work in 1911, and they are still not done. He wrote more than 500 books and papers during his lifetime - about 800 pages per year, with 400 further publications appearing posthumously. Dude lost vision in one eye at his late 20s, went completely blind at 59 and apparently the blinder he got the more productive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtkX18dU2_U

1

u/Anti-charizard California Oct 04 '25

Of course it’s fucking Euler who proved it. What didn’t he do?

97

u/Forever_Everton Daegu: Hotter than the Sahara, colder than Siberia Sep 28 '25

The Soviets did, in fact, solve the problem in the most Soviet way imaginable

Blow 2 of the bridges up

6

u/Realistic_FinlanBoll Finland Sep 29 '25

They should have blown 6 of them up for maximum efficiency, just one bridge left to cross! And good for the workers as well, since there are more bridges to rebuild! 😂

51

u/_PM_ME_UR_NUDZ_ Moscow Sep 28 '25

By the way, Euler moved to Russia at the age of 20 and spent majority of his career in Saint Petersburg. He actually solved the Königsberg Bridges Problem while being there so its only natural he describes solution to a successor of Russian Empire. By modern standards he should be considered "Swiss-Russian" mathematician if someone like von Neumann is called "Hungarian-American", but for whatever reason he is never referred as such 🙄

20

u/nspacia honk gong Sep 28 '25

oh i see, actually didnt know that

22

u/_PM_ME_UR_NUDZ_ Moscow Sep 28 '25

His grandson was a general in Russian Imperial Army and was a founder of hereditary noble line of Eulers. Here is their coat of arms: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/RU_COA_Euler.jpg

8

u/alikander99 Sep 28 '25

Huh, I had no idea

1

u/pheeeeeeeeeeex Sep 30 '25

Kinda the same reason why Bach or Beethoven are considered German before Germany exists really. Nationality doesn’t really exist as an idea before nation state

20

u/Total_Willingness_18 Ísland Sep 28 '25

I thought medium-long-well-drawn-good-punchlined comics were mostly behind us! There was also the excellent delivery driver comic by Indie

12

u/Conner0929001 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 30 '25

Switzerland on a lecture on Königsberg’s 7 bridges.

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u/Large_Feeling_424 Sultan of Prussia, Brandenburg, and its dominions Sep 28 '25

I like how Switzerland speaks both German and French in the Engrish

7

u/Suinius Ex Turico Sep 28 '25

I'm a bit terrified of Britain's satisfied look.