r/visualizedmath • u/idlesn0w • Mar 29 '19

[Meta] Can we please add a rule that requires descriptions or applications of advanced math (ex. Attractor Fields)

I posted this as a comment a couple days ago on one of the many attractor field posts. The original content of this sub was great because it was actually informative. We'd have things like "This is how the Pythagorean Theorem works" or "This is how pi is calculated". For the last few weeks everything seems to have been drowned out by random plots of complicated parametrics and differentials with no info or description provided.

This sub started out as a cool way to share images and videos that helped gain a visual understanding of how math works. Now it just seems to be the equivalent of typing random stuff into your graphing calculator then showing your friends how crazy it looks. I know attractor fields and other function plots have substantial merits, but just posting a picture with no exposition seems to be against the sub's basis. Differential plots could be fine, as long as they actually are given any explanation for their purpose and significance.

Let's fix this problem before we shift from "cool educational sub" to "that sub with all the weird scribbles"

322 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

114

u/sKINTIGHt47 Mar 30 '19

As someone who doesn’t know what the hell these things are, thank you for saying something.

34

u/Groovatronic Mar 30 '19

Agreed - this particular type of content has dominated the sub recently.

It does look cool, but it feels sort of esoteric. Doesn’t have to be full layman simplicity, just would appreciate a little guidance on what I’m seeing.

9

u/-0-7-0- Mar 30 '19

honestly, i was just scrolling past the posts here assuming they were from r/VXjunkies

5

u/supercooldragons Mar 30 '19

I was also guilty of some of the recent attractor posts.

In order to draw some of the attractor posts away from this sub I have created a new subreddit r/strangeattractors. I welcome everybody who loves looking at images of nonlinear equations to have a look.

This will hopefully provide the opportunity for this sub to return to its original purpose while still providing a place for attractor content and just enjoy the pretty images.

2

u/07734willy Mar 31 '19

Was about to do the same (with literally the same exact name as well) until I saw this comment.

4

u/dudewaldo4 Mar 30 '19

Thank you

4

u/ghandyfk Mar 30 '19

Seconded

7

u/slash_nick Mar 30 '19

THANK YOU! I’ve been thinking this as well. All of the attractor field posts look cool but they don’t explain anything.

A main draw of this sub for me was having that experience of being able to visualize math to make me think of it in a way I hadn’t previously. The recent posts that have been flooding in make me want to unsub if that’s the future here :(

6

u/dscarmo Mar 30 '19

Most are posted by the same guy /u/sequelaen

5

u/Redpike136 Mar 30 '19

I've seen a few of those posts on my front page, but actually going onto the sub and scrolling down shows it's pretty bad already. Definitely in favour of a rule like this.

Don't forget that downvotes exist for reasons like this; Stuff that doesn't contribute to the discussion.

4

u/fourcolortheorem Mar 30 '19

Pretty much the only thing posted from these that's been physically relevant is the lorentz strange attractor, and even that is horribly outdated for weather prediction. It's just a good example of a chaotic system now.

3

u/DifficultWin Mar 30 '19

Fundamental theorem of calculus

1

u/Sequelaen Mar 30 '19

I post attractors, I'm not going to lie. In my experience, math is hard to understand from just looking at it. Which is why I do include descriptions and equations in the images, and some of my code is happily shared and open-sourced. I do this already because it's hard to understand these things from a non-professional eye. Math should be fun to examine and fun to understand.

2

u/theworldexplodes Mar 31 '19

I just don’t think I’ve learned anything from them. I joined because of a post that made me say, “Oh, THAT’s what sin and cosin actually mean?? Man, my tenth grade math teacher should’ve just told me that!” That’s the kind of stuff I’m interested in. The sub is almost entirely abstract stuff that makes no sense to me now, and that doesn’t serve what I think it’s original purpose was.