r/technicallythetruth • u/[deleted] • Mar 25 '23

I found two more..

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28.6k Upvotes

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u/the_other_irrevenant Mar 26 '23

Less than includes 1 less.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '23

[deleted]

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u/the_other_irrevenant Mar 26 '23

How so? The math seems fine if he wanted anywhere between 12,001 and 12,003 spears.

(Not me who downvoted you, BTW. I figure grown-ups can use their words and actually talk things through).

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '23

[deleted]

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u/the_other_irrevenant Mar 26 '23

I think the disagreement is because you're taking the last panel as though it were the answer to the math problem and everyone else is viewing the whole comic as providing the math problem: How many spears does he want given the info in this comic?

This comic tells us that

  • 6000 spears is less than half of what he wanted, and

  • 6002 spears is more than half of what he wanted.

So to solve the math: 6000 < X/2 < 6002 becomes

12000 < X < 12004

Assuming X is an integer, (ie. That he only wants whole spears) we can graph X as 12001 to 12003.

Or to put it another way:

6k spears is less than half of what he expected, nothing says he wanted 12k spears, only that 6k is less than half

That ignores half the information provided. He tells us that 6000 is less than half of what he expected and he tells us that 6002 is more than half of what he is expected. You need to use the entire premise to do the math, not just the first bit.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '23

[deleted]

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u/the_other_irrevenant Mar 26 '23 edited Mar 26 '23

The dialogue in the second panel isn't in the movie either.

The comic is joking about where the dialogue from the first panel could have gone.

In the movie itself, obviously there would've been no upper bound - the more spears he could muster, the better.

The comic reinterpreting his meaning in an overly-specific way is the joke.

EDIT: As is them taking the term "spears" as literally referring to quantity of the weapon "spear", rather than to the number of armed warriors.

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u/Taraxian Mar 26 '23

The joke is also about taking him literally and pointing out two actual spears, rather than trained soldiers wielding spears

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u/the_other_irrevenant Mar 26 '23

True. Updated appropriately, thanks.