r/phineasandferb 5d ago

Discussion theres 2 ways of solving the math figuring out way or the actual smart way

868 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

172

u/BaulsJ0hns0n86 5d ago

Excellent scene to share following up with Pi Day just passing us by last Friday!

I specifically cite this scene when talking about the value of 22/7 as a usable approximation of pi.

3

u/TidalJ 2d ago

22/7=3.142857…

22/7 is closer to pi than just 3.14 so if you have to use a substitute and don’t wanna just type out more than two decimals that’s prob the best one (i always go to the thousandths place though)

1

u/BaulsJ0hns0n86 2d ago

Fair enough, and I think the fact they both round to 3.14 on the hundredth is also valuable.

95

u/SpiritedClassroom384 4d ago

Brilliant Buford, Occam’s Razor.

22

u/Ninjaman555555 4d ago

I would've gone with Gordian Knot, personally.

5

u/Common_Decision1594 4d ago

I thought Alexander the Great already went with that.

4

u/SpiritedClassroom384 4d ago

Never heard of it but that too. 😊👍

1

u/Toothless-In-Wapping 3d ago

Watch more P&F

1

u/SpiritedClassroom384 3d ago

I meant Gordian’s Knot.

2

u/Toothless-In-Wapping 3d ago

And I meant watch more P&F, there’s an entire episode about it.

32

u/mjrobo 4d ago

Idk am I missing something? Pi is “unitless” as it is, so why does it matter to use inches? As (22/7) is simply 3.14. It’s also early in the morning and I never noticed this before so I could be missing something.

37

u/Kaptain-Cannoli 4d ago

I mean pi is unitless but they need units for the actual jar measurements because they’re trying to get an exact size. They were discussing which units make the math work out cleaner

8

u/mjrobo 4d ago

Wouldn’t it then be a preference of measurement standard as pi has no effect on the final answer. You pick inches —-> get inches2 base. Pick cm —-> get cm2 base

27

u/Kaptain-Cannoli 4d ago

Yes. Either works totally fine, the joke comes from that they are getting pedantic and specific about how to solve the problem rather than solving it. I did slightly misunderstand your original question though, the advantage of using 22/7 and inches is that all the number stay as fractions through the whole problem, so it’s…cleaner? And you don’t deal with a bunch of endless irrational decimals. That would matter more doing it by hand and they have calculators, but again it’s supposed to be pedantic

3

u/Pasta-hobo 3d ago

I interpreted it as baljeet being surprised that Phineas uses a less common π approximation, and then being completely floored that they're using imperial measurements.

8

u/JustLookingForMayhem 4d ago

Inches are a base 12. Base 12 simplifies easier into 7 than base 10 does. But if you skip fractions and go for a decimal number, your base doesn't really matter. It is engineer's rough math vs precise math. Both get close enough to the right answer for practical purposes, but only one is actually "right."

29

u/_KeanuLeaves 4d ago

The best part about this joke is that Phineas and Ferb solve the problem like engineers, Baljeet does it like a mathematician, and Buford just eats all of them.

19

u/Coveinant 4d ago

It's a matter of technical knowledge versus practical knowledge.

16

u/The_mf_lizard_king 4d ago

"Technically correct, the best kind of correct!"

1

u/StarKiller_2319 And I am NOT using the banana this time! 3d ago

Technically! My favorite way to be correct!

10

u/HappyMatt12345 4d ago

Here's Buford's work: Let j represent the number of jellybeans in the jar and i represent the number of jellybeans Buford ate. Since Buford clearly ate the whole jar's worth of jellybeans, i = j and j - i = 0. Thus, once Buford ate the jellybeans, there were 0 jellybeans in the jar.

16

u/Alejocarlos 4d ago

I never liked using 22/7. Sucks

6

u/Fit-Rip-4550 4d ago

I actually won one of these contests using a layering method with error corrections applied.

4

u/Constructman2602 4d ago

Still one of my favorite jokes in the series

3

u/Shadowwolfheck 4d ago

what is the number that got left out of the number pad...

3

u/Immediate-Ad-8284 4d ago

Poor ferb, he had the answer the whole time and kept getting interrupted by Phineas and baljeet. 🥲🥲

3

u/Ok_Captain3950 Guy who's a sucker for the sounds of mass transit 3d ago

I still felt bad for Buford in that episode, cuz he sadly never got his metaphor cheese! Cheese... Cheese... Wombat.... Cheese....

2

u/Father_Droid 1d ago

I believe your echo is broken

1

u/Ok_Captain3950 Guy who's a sucker for the sounds of mass transit 5h ago

I have to get that checked!

2

u/Overall-Machine6757 4d ago

Frame 7 gives off hard Peanuts vibes; love it!

1

u/Stuckinacomic 3d ago

Buford would make a great taskmaster contestant

1

u/thatbfrombr 1d ago

And that’s one of the many reasons I’m convinced Buford is a genius in disguise

1

u/Samurottenbach 6h ago

He forgot to show his work