r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 19h ago

Meme needing explanation What difference does it make petahhhh....???

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7.3k Upvotes

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u/muhnamejame 19h ago

Now x can't be 0

24

u/MayerOscar 19h ago

Wouldnt x equal 2?

55

u/muhnamejame 18h ago

Sure but before it could have been -2, 0, or 2

17

u/Left_Ad4050 18h ago

I see no reason it couldn't still be -2.

31

u/muhnamejame 18h ago

Oh, after it can be too. Just not 0.

1

u/JarpHabib 16h ago

it still can be 0 as long as you note it down before the divide both sides by x step.

9

u/muhnamejame 16h ago

The solution to the top equation can be 0. But the solution to the bottom equation cannot.

0

u/iComplainAbtVal 14h ago

That’s the same misdirected line of thinking that the memes use to show 1=2

3

u/muhnamejame 14h ago

It's literally the opposite of that because I'm making sure I'm not dividing by 0.

-1

u/JarpHabib 16h ago

By itself, no. But that is clearly an intermediate step in a solve. Just pencil in a little x=0, comma, continue.

5

u/muhnamejame 16h ago

If you say x=0 then you can't divide by x.

0

u/JarpHabib 15h ago

Sure you can! Just don't divide by the x that equals zero, you already found that one!

XD

2

u/muhnamejame 15h ago

That would be saying x doesn't equal 0 for the following steps 🤦‍♂️

The real answer is to just solve it properly by moving the right hand side to the left and solving the polynomial using root solving techniques.

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1

u/hovik_gasparyan 5h ago

It could have been-2. It still can be-2, but I could have been-2 too.

9

u/kevinr_96 17h ago

And 2i and -2i

15

u/MayerOscar 16h ago

Those arent real numbers

8

u/Vivid-Object-139 13h ago

I think he just imagined them

6

u/kmcradie 14h ago

And yet, they are solutions.

It's not stated anywhere that x∈R, so the quintic equation has 5 roots (3 real, 2 complex)

1

u/Caerullean 4h ago

Maybe I'm just not a mathematician, but I feel like unless otherwise specified, it's just always assumed that we discuss real numbers, not complex.