587: Crime Scene
| Crime Scene |
 Title text: I think I see a Mandelbrot set! No, that's just blood spatters. Golly. |
Explanation
Mathnet is a segment on the children's television show "Square One Television" where mathematicians solved mysteries with math. This comic attempts to play on that, by implying that the Mathnet department of the LAPD was shut down, forcing the mathematicians to become regular detectives. In the comic, a man (presumably a former Mathnet member) tries to glean some sort of mathematical meaning out of the murders, by saying that the number of bodies, two, is the third Fibonacci number (A set of numbers where each number is the sum of the previous tow, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 etc.)
The title-text goes on to extrapolate by saying that the mathematician saw a Mandelbrot set in the blood spatters, which is a formula used to create certain kinds of fractals.
Transcript
[A crime scene is surrounded in tape. A large black pool is on the ground, with splashes around it, and some sort of tool. Two people are standing outside the tape.]
- Policeman: Looks like a murder-suicide.
- George: Any interesting mathematical patterns?
- Policeman: No, George, just two dead bodies and a lot of blood.
- George: Two... that's the third Fibonacci number!
- Policeman: Not now, George.
When Mathnet shut down, the officers had trouble reintegrating into the regular L.A.P.D.
