The Great Taylor Series Conspiracy

The Great Taylor Series Conspiracy
math-memes, physics-memes, taylor-series-memes, approximation-memes, academic-rivalry-memes | ScienceHumor.io

The eternal rivalry between mathematicians and physicists exposed! The meme shows a Taylor expansion formula where only the first two terms are labeled "Actual Taylor expansion" while the rest are crossed out as "Lies invented by mathematicians to feel superior to physicists." This is basically every physics course in a nutshell. Physicists are notorious for their "good enough" approximations—why use the full infinite series when the first two terms get you within 99% accuracy? Meanwhile, mathematicians are clutching their pearls at such blasphemy. The truth is, most physical systems don't need those higher-order terms unless you're calculating the orbit of Mercury or something equally pretentious. Engineers take it even further and just round π to 3. Pure savagery.

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