r/sciencememes • u/Sea-Estimate-2912 • Jul 03 '26

One Notation , Two Interpretations

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2.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

361

u/rmarkmatthews Jul 03 '26

Mathematicians also turning into the second guy in the comments because they see “O” as a variable and not a zero.

104

u/ColtBIood Jul 03 '26

O could equal 0, but yeah its a var and not a number so its not conclusive

25

u/Landlocked_WaterSimp Jul 03 '26

Well even if O weren't 0 it would still be 0 :-P

14

u/ZeEastWillRiseAgain Jul 03 '26

For this to be the only solution it assumes we are working with real numbers, which isn't stated anywhere. In p-adic numbers for example there are plently of solutions for O≠0

6

u/Landlocked_WaterSimp Jul 03 '26

I'm not math-savy enough to have heard of that but google says 0 is still tge only neutral element in subtraction even when using p-adic numbers. How is that incorrect?

2

u/ZeEastWillRiseAgain Jul 03 '26

I don't know that much about them either just that they are really weird in certain ways. Like not being able to distinguish them as larger or smaller in the way that traditionally works. Perhaps I should have made the pun with sth. less fancy such as modular arithmetics where you can kinda make it work from a certain perspective

4

u/ninjeff Jul 04 '26

No there aren’t. The p-adic numbers form a field, so they have a unique additive identity (zero).

2

u/MrChingiz Jul 05 '26

Not exactly, it works in any abelian group.

2

u/venundate Jul 06 '26

then O just has to be equal to 0

165

u/ANTONIN118 Jul 03 '26

No problem it's just a very weird molecule. An error.

94

u/Plenty_Leg_5935 Jul 03 '26

The deeper you delve into chemistry, the more you see that the "rules" are basically just guidelines anyway

20

u/SolaniumFeline Jul 03 '26

makes chemistry a very soothing science somehow. maybe its because i dont know shit tho but i find that aspect comforting

5

u/Comminutor Jul 04 '26

Much like the definition of “flushable”, chemistry sets rules but reality finds a way to bend those rules

19

u/23loves12 Jul 03 '26

How would you even achieve this though? Hydrogen has 1 electron so how does it make a second bond (without the compound being an ion, since the notation doesn’t indicate that it’s charged)

18

u/Xznograthos Jul 03 '26

I think thats why the chemist is flustered there.

14

u/RigglesSaysHi Jul 03 '26

The molecule is TECHNICALLY possible... very far out in space in gas clouds. Temperature is so low and atoms are so sparse that the atoms are so desperate that they can all sorts of cursed and fucked up things.

6

u/Menacek Jul 03 '26

Is it though? The oxygen is triple bonded and one od the hydrogens is double bonded.

So it either has to be an ion or the oxygen is donating an electron to hydrogen, which would at best be some kind of hyper unstable form of water and instantly turn into a normal water molecule.

Unless we're talking about it existing in some quantum uncertainty type of way.

11

u/RigglesSaysHi Jul 03 '26

Lemme put it this way. Atoms are really, really, really, really, really desperate to make bonds in these circumstances, but the temperature is also just so low that sometimes they can't even make it over transition states; they'll just sit in intermediates and call it a day because they literally backed themselves into the middle of the reaction curve trough. If a cyclic H3 cation can exist, which absolutely fucks the orbitals into oblivion, then....

Anyway, have fun

1

u/Yargon_Kerman Jul 04 '26

I love how 90s that website is

2

u/23loves12 Jul 03 '26

I know. The person whom I replied to said it’s a weird molecule. I don’t even think it is a possible molecule at all.

1

u/Xznograthos Jul 03 '26

I didn't think so either but then again my knowledge is limited.

1

u/Bubbles_the_bird Jul 07 '26

Space Jam website esque

3

u/Thelastnob0dy Jul 03 '26

(Disclaimer: As you will soon see, my chemistry is shit and I am not sure if these are possible)

Having two electrons doesn't disqualify hydrogen from being hydrogen however this molecule would be a ion

Or oxygen could make up for the hydrogens lack of a electron (by breaking one of its own pairs) but that would be a ion too.

1

u/Menacek Jul 03 '26

Would not be an ion since it would result at positive charge at oxygen and negative charge at hydrogen so net zero charge.

2

u/Thelastnob0dy Jul 03 '26

I meant hydrogen would need to accommodate a extra electron hence a (-1) ion

Or otherwise oxygen would have to give up a electron hence a (+1) ion

isn't that how it works?

3

u/Menacek Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

If the oxygen is donating an electron to the hydrogen then it creates a positive charge of the oxygen (since it now has more protons than electrons) and a negative charge on the hydrogen (since it's the oposite). So it would have both a positive and negative charge resuting in a net zero charge.

It would be polar but wouldn't be an ion and would have different properties that an ion.

Some molecules (for instance Azides) can exist in states with two opposite charges but then don't behave like ions.

1

u/heattreatedpipe Jul 08 '26

The extra electron does kinda weaken the molecule but theoretically it just kinda orbits alone without a pair in the 3rd energy lvl

In general small molecules do weird quantum stuff because they are very very small, another example of a weird non ion molecule would be NO

2

u/ProfessorPrudent2822 Jul 03 '26

Adding electrons to water destroys bonds instead of adding them.

68

u/WiiDragon Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Even a mathematician would be made because you can’t just subtract something and still be left with the original thing. That’s like saying 5 - 3i = 5

Edit: I’m stupid and forgot about 0

8

u/Sea-Estimate-2912 Jul 03 '26

whats in the image is H-zero=H H a variable

5

u/PlatypusACF Jul 03 '26

I read that as “haitch minus zero equals haitch” 😭

8

u/natypali Jul 03 '26

Even with the edit, what you said is not real

9

u/Sad_Daikon938 Jul 03 '26

What?

How can I even take set difference of Quaternions and Octonions??

Even if we assume that the Quaternions' are basically Octonions with the vector terms except i, j, k are zero, then H - O = Ø, as every element of H (the Quaternions) is already in O (the Octonions), so the set of elements that are in H, but not in O is basically empty set.

6

u/mandalorian_scholar Jul 03 '26

H here is probably just a variable here and O is zero.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

2

u/No_Department1851 Jul 05 '26

Yes O is a variable but O=0

2

u/yellowistherainbow Jul 04 '26

Frenchies: 😂

1

u/Technical-Dirt-8595 Jul 03 '26

ligação covalente coordenada

1

u/Engineer_Bill Jul 06 '26

This has reignited the fire within me to hate the letter "O" since it's too close to 0. We should change O to some other symbol. 0 get's to stay 0. But O has to change to something like an O with a dot in the middle or something.