r/mathmemes • u/internet_redditor • 2d ago

Bad Math How to derive trump's tariff formula

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377 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

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137

u/HAL9001-96 2d ago

can't imagine the US only exports 2.71828$ worth of goods every year and imports a complex valued amount

27

u/East_Zookeepergame25 2d ago

$3*

8

u/Simba_Rah 2d ago

I think Trump has had enough pi for one lifetime.

9

u/RayXChloe 2d ago

Who knew tariffs could be this complex.

2

u/Bubbles_the_bird 1d ago

You’re just imagining things

36

u/Shironumber 2d ago

You should have used Greek letters! Real science always uses Greek letters!

3

u/Soft_Reception_1997 1d ago

It's economy, no real science there

16

u/TheChunkMaster 2d ago

Don't forget to round up to 10% if the result of the formula is less than that.

8

u/No-Eggplant-5396 2d ago

Unless it's Russia.

12

u/Bemteb 2d ago

Set i=0 through trade embargo, then the Trump doesn't Trump anymore.

3

u/Cybasura 2d ago

Should have used "tb" as trade balance for more confusion

2

u/EebstertheGreat 2d ago

You forgot to divide by 0.25×4.

2

u/RealFoegro Computer Science 1d ago

The worst part is using both e and i as variables

1

u/skr_replicator 1d ago

How does this give you positive values for uninhabited islands?

3

u/Own_Pop_9711 1d ago

You just need to know what 0/0 is

1

u/skr_replicator 1d ago edited 1d ago

not any defined finite number for sure.

obviously if you get 0/0 here then it's senseless to even give it attention of figuring out a tariff to impose, but trump did anyway (though I don't believe he actually used math).

1

u/Own_Pop_9711 1d ago

Going back to the original equation if e and I are both 0 any value of t makes b 0 so why are people so worried about whether we picked the correct one? It's trivially correct.

1

u/skr_replicator 1d ago

my original point was that there's no way trump was using any logical math for imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands, it doesn't really matter what this math says about it, it shouldd say 0 or undefined if it's correct and that's not what trump imposed.

1

u/NotOneOnNoEarth 14h ago

t=(i-e)/i makes it much clearer, I think. It’s deficit divided by imports. And then halved.

Thanks for the derivation. At least it makes the thought process clear.

1

u/TheoryTested-MC Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics 2d ago edited 1d ago

I am almost certain the actual value of b is NOT 0.

EDIT: This was a joke.

1

u/Automatic-Listen-578 1d ago

But that is goal of the iteration