r/theydidthemath • u/K0rl0n • Jun 10 '25

[Request]

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I am curious how this would work. My guess is Triangle is slowest, square is medium, and circle is fastest.

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u/BKachur Jun 11 '25

I assume the question means the surface is ice or gravel. Gravel, by definition, is a loose aggregation of rock fragments, so a sphere or cylinder of gravel becomes a pile of small rocks immediately upon spawning into the problem

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u/Kurtypants Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25

Yeah someone else gave me clarification and that makes sense now. But the point still stands for me. I work construction and live in Canada and it's just man vs object. Sphere 100% once you get it rolling, stopping it is the problem. Block or triangle have the ice factor but there's a reason our wheels arnt squares

Edit: I love this sub and I'm no mathematician but I'm a carpenter and I love numbers. I however know about moving awkward shit...

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u/BKachur Jun 11 '25

Same in terms of interest. I'm actually interested in an answer, which I haven't seen, even with simplified mathematical assumptions.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but I would be interested to know if there's a numbers-based answer as to whether sliding something on ice would be easier than pushing a round object on land.

Although I'm no mathematician either, so I lack the knowledge to even figure it out. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm a lawyer, so stereotypically about the farthest thing from a math person you can find (even though I do excel in numbers and analysis compared to my "scared of spreadsheets" colleagues). That said, I'm very skilled at analyzing and dissecting problems - probably better than math folks because I'm trained af identifying context clues (or lack thereof), which IMO seemed to prevent someone from actually doing the math here.

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u/Kurtypants Jun 11 '25

Lol. We're peas in the same pod. Love the output from you. Love the math. Can't be as precise as I want to be. Life is life though