#2 How Tall Would This Tree Have Been, And How Visible Would It Have Been?
So, there’s a community on Reddit called r/TheyDidTheMath, which captions itself as “useless, yet interesting calculations.” The description smugly points out “and they said math has no real world applications.”
The subreddit is ranked in the top 1% on the platform and boasts 1.4 million members.
#4 What Does His Shirt Say
#5 Is This True?
#6 Approximately How Large Would The Car Have To Be In Order To Be That Curved?
You can say the subreddit deals in very situational and contextual math where you’d probably only be able to use it in very niche cosmological occasions.
Like calculating the amount of toilet paper you’d need for 14 days of quarantine. Or what all the humans as fine goo would look like in Central Park. Or the number of small pizzas you’d need to substitute a large pizza. OK, that last one sounds useful.
#7 How Much Does This Kitten Weigh?
#8 Really Though, How Much Different Exactly?
#9 How Many Combinations Of 9 Ingredients Are Possible. Using All 9 At Once Is Not Required
Bored Panda has reached out to the founder of the subreddit, r/FragTheWhale, who was more than happy to tell us more about r/TheyDidTheMath.
"I was a part of the tool subreddit, r/toolband, and someone had made an actual calculated, in-depth analysis of a Tool lyric 'slide a mile six inches at a time on Maynard's [ding-dong]' and what length of time it would take," elaborated Frag. "Loved the idea so much, I created a subreddit for it with 1.54 million subs!"
#10 Is This True And If Yes How Deos It Work?
#11 How Much Would This Actually Cost?
#12 What Is A Penguins Slapping Power?
Despite the tagline "useless math", the subreddit actually serves an important educational function.
"I think it can serve an educational purpose! Especially in terms of shifting perspectives or addressing myths (something about too many bananas are bad for you? Turns out, you'd have to eat like 4,000 bananas in a day to overdose on potassium, something like that). Initially, people kinda used it as a tool to get others to do their math homework for them."
#13 I’ve Always Wondered How Much Money Walt Actually Had
#14 A Lot Of Paper, But How Much
#15 How Many Rocks Would This Person Have To Throw To Flood Denmark?
When asked what the community is like, OP explained that it's hard to say for sure as they have taken a step back from Reddit as a whole. But, the community seems to thrive all the same, and, over the years, Frag noticed that there are essentially two camps of people: the crowd that's all about silly humor in math, and the crowd that's all about hardcore science and analytics.
It goes without saying that it is very entertaining to see people take silly discussions both seriously and scientifically.
#16 How Many Nickels Would It Take To Crush You?
#17 What Are The Odds?
Intermediate: 1 in 6.1 million
Expert: 1 in 477,000"
#18 How Much Would This Cool The Tea?
When asked about any favorite posts on the subreddit, the founder noted that it's hard to pick out a favorite. Whenever they pop on to the subreddit, it feels like everyone is still staying true to what the subreddit originally was and stood for nearly a decade back.
#19 How Fast Would You Need To Go To Successfully Complete The Loop?
#20 If The Sun Turned Into A Black Hole Of Equivalent Mass, Would The Accretion Disk Disk Be Large Enough To Destroy The Earth? If Not, How Bright Would It Be?
