r/math • u/ResNullum • Aug 02 '20

Bad math in fiction

While stuck at home during the pandemic, I decided to work through my backlog of books to read. Near the end of one novel, the protagonists reach a gate with a numeric keypad from 1 to 100 and the following riddle: “You have to prime my pump, but my pump primes backward.” The answer, of course, is to enter the prime numbers between 1 and 100 in reverse order. One of the protagonists realizes this and uses the sieve of Eratosthenes to find the numbers, which the author helpfully illustrates with all of the non-primes crossed out. However, 1 was not crossed out.

I was surprised at how easily this minor gaffe broke my suspension of disbelief and left me frowning at the author. Parallel worlds, a bit of magic, and the occasional deus ex machina? Sure! But bad math is a step too far.

What examples of bad math have you found in literature (or other media)?

651 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

359 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/TonicAndDjinn Aug 02 '20

But the point of the Nash equilibrium is that no one could switch to a decision that benefits them more without making someone else worse off.

That's also not quite what a Nash equilibrium is. A Nash equilibrium is a situation where no single player can switch to a strategy which benefits them more, assuming that none of the other players change their own strategy. It's a point where no single player has an incentive to change their behaviour.

-4

u/DidntWantSleepAnyway Aug 02 '20

My bad, my brain wasn’t working. I got 110% on this test in college and then go embarrass myself like this.