587: Crime Scene

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:39, 20 August 2013 by 71.201.53.130 (talk) (Explanation: Clarified that "a man" is George Frankly; small tweaks to explanation of Square One show)
Jump to: navigation, search
Crime Scene
I think I see a Mandelbrot set! No, that's just blood spatters. Golly.
Title text: I think I see a Mandelbrot set! No, that's just blood spatters. Golly.

Explanation

Mathnet was a segment on the children's television show "Square One Television," in which police mathematicians solved crimes and other 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 George Frankly, the main character of the show) 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 two, 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.

comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

That officer is a fool. I'd say it'd be much more likely to relate to the first prime number (assuming you ignore 1, as apparently you're supposed to) than the third Fibonacci one, barring any prior incidents that might or might not be attributed to the same killer. Of course, we'd perhaps have to wait until three crime-scenes later to work out which of these patterns our Malevolently Mathematical Mastermind of Murder has memetically manipulated for us... Holy Torii, Batman! (And no wonder the policemen like both donuts and coffee cups... They're the same...) 178.105.100.250 00:20, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

The first prime number is -1!!! 141.101.104.20 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Are you kidding me? Beanie (talk) 13:15, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

" a man (presumably a former Mathnet member" - Not just anyone, the officer calls him George. George Frankly was the main character on the show. Just putting it out there. --Alcatraz ii (talk) 22:43, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

You know, this being a wiki and all, you could have added that yourself. Never mind, I've done it for you. 71.201.53.130 20:42, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

The original Fibonacci problem was formulated about the count of multiplying pairs of rabbits, starting with one pair. So 2 is definitely the 3rd number, not 4th, in that formulation. 108.162.246.5 22:21, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

off topic:i think this is a homage to this show 103.22.200.222 09:04, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

obviously inspired by The Da Vinci Code...162.158.165.16 10:58, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

I am unsure, but could the use of the word 'Golly' in the title text be a reference to the popular program to run Conway's game of life which goes by the same name? 141.101.99.105 16:53, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

There was a week-long series of Mathnet wherein the Fibonacci series was the focus and a recurring theme, including columns of tiles and artwork, and a parrot who'd call out "Eureka!" The mystery was of the "I inherited a clue about a key..." type. 108.162.216.163 13:46, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

The man with the hair around his neck

The man has male pattern baldness. It is not around his neck. Lackadaisical (talk) 02:56, 25 July 2016 (UTC)


George should have tried to use visual calculus to unleash the power of 1.618033988749; not just aritmetics.