Italian computer scientist Michele Filannino says that while the terms are correct, its general formulation is wrong. Filannino explains that the logo “is formed by multiplying six terms and then setting the entire expression is equal to zero. This is a conceptual mistake. In order to plot the Batman’s logo you have to plot the six different terms separately on the same graph. Each term must be set equals to zero.”
In very basic terms, for the equation to work you have to overlay six graphs on to of each other to get the logo. Or so it would seem! Filannino shows his work on his blog, but I’m quite honestly too ignorant of both the Cartesian coordinate system and Italian to do anything other than grunt concernedly at it.
Is there a Cartesian mathematics expert in the house?
Matt
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:15 AMChrome just saved my arse:
“www.gravita-zero.org contains content from http://www.quotidianopiemontese.it, a site known to distribute malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site.”
Pyta
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:56 AMProbably a dodgy advertisement.
Gabriel
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 9:52 AMI could help you out Mat. But i don’t mathamatise for anything less than $10,000 a day
Flux
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:51 AMItalian maths guy is right – you can’t simply multiply together terms to add each separate line segment together! The original creator of the Batman formula has presumed that since the LHS is purely multiplicative, equating it to 0 is the same as declaring one of the terms on the LHS to also be 0 (since a x b x c x 0 = 0). While this is superficially true, it simply does not get you out of the grunt work of expanding the LHS and standard-forming the equation before you draw it – pretty specifically to avoid this sort of processing error.
You could, if fact, formulate the ‘Batman equation’ not as one equation but with 6, each accompanied with a domain and range that defines when that equation holds true. But it doesn’t look as cool and jargony as the original effort did, and I for one can’t be arsed.
cayal
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 4:02 PMof course…
Stephen
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 8:33 PMThis makes me so sad:(
Of course, I’m not sure what’s sadder, that the equation doesn’t quite work or that someone actually tested it.
Drew
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 8:47 AMMaths-debate!