Comments on: Comments on 5233

Post number 5233

rushmc — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 07:15:36 -0800

The Quadratic Law of Resentment If you combine N people, there are N(N-1)/2 possible ways in which arguments can break out. [via A&LD] This seems rather salient to a site like Metafilter...

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 09:22:40 -0800

4349775 ways for metafilterers to fight!

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 09:50:44 -0800

Now, how many of you are gonna check it to see if it's right? ;)

By: iceberg273

iceberg273 — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 10:08:01 -0800

Would you get mad if someone did check your calculation? :) The good news is that it's not doubling or tripling anymore. When member 2951 joins we can only fight 2950 more ways. In fact, for every person that joins, we can only fight N-1 more ways. That's pretty negligible considering the possible ways that we can already fight.

By: jennyb

jennyb — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 10:37:47 -0800

Them's fighin' words!

By: allaboutgeorge

allaboutgeorge — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:06:44 -0800

jennyb: Them's fightin' words, too.

By: jennyb

jennyb — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:19:58 -0800

If this were real life I'd throw a chair at you right now...

By: grimmelm

grimmelm — Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:37:26 -0800

Is anyone else reminded of the opening of Something Happened?

By: Succa

Succa — Sat, 13 Jan 2001 12:51:34 -0800

Is there a proof for this theorem anywhere?

By: cCranium

cCranium — Sat, 13 Jan 2001 14:52:05 -0800

Succa, I'm guessing here, and I certainly don't agree with the numbers, but let's say (for simplicity) that N=5. There's five people, coincidentally enough named Person 1, Person 2, Person 3 Person 4 and Person 5. Or, P₁5 for easy writing. 5(4)/2 = 20, so that's the number we're trying to achieve. Alright, I'm too lazy to bother with subscripting, though I'm sure it would look nice. P1 through P5. P1 can start an arguement with P2, P3, P4 or P5, so that's 4 ways. P2 can start an arguement with P1, P3, P4, or P5, 4 more P3 can start an argument with P1, P2, P4, or P5, +4 P4 " " " " " P1, P2, P3, or P5, +4 P5 " " " " " P1, P2, P3, P4. 4+4+4+4+4=20, as I'm sure you've already guessed. I know, I could have probably stopped after P2, but it was getting fun. :-) It's not a factorial function because who started the argument is apparently important. I personally thing there are far more ways an argument can start in a group of N people. N says Blogs suck, N+1 says Blogs are valuable, N+3 chips in and says only the A-List are cool and N+2 smacks them all upside the head.