Math Genius' Needed!

[Arkengate]

Okay, so i was in an argument with 2 buds last night at BDubs for no reason, and, one of them said "You cant be a third something, its NOT possible"

Now, in context to what it was, is, heritage. They were saying it is 100% impossible to get to 33.33%(repeating) heritage of something (example: Norwegian)

So, im curious, can ANYONE here prove that by using heritage, and percentages, u can be 33.33% something?

Example:
Itd be like
100% and 0% parent, child is 50%, put that with a 100% partner, and theyll have 75% etc...

Idk how yall would do it via math, im too lazy to currently figure it out (also, reading my 4 chapters of bio for my test tomorrow rofl)

Answer it! prove me right -_- lol

 

[Arkengate]

Also, i apologize if i didnt do a very good job explaining what i want done... im kinda busy and doing this in a rush, lol, and i figure ya'll got some genius in ya and you will give me the right answer, lol...

Just, somehow, go through generations of people(varying % of things) and prove that a baby can be conceived at 33.33repeating% of a heritage! I think the max would be like 100,000 generations lol...

 

[Doraki]

You know, it's impossible to even DEFINE one's heritage.
How do you know for how long you have to go ? How do you define the different nationalities ?

We're like all supposed to be 100% african.. according to some theory.

And even if you could, making it 1/3rd of something is impossible because you only get fratcions over powers of 2.

 

[AltF4]

Can't happen. Doraki (and your friends) are right.

Think of it like this:

Your heritage is the sum of a bunch of fractions. If your dad was 100% German, that makes you 1/2 German. If your grandfather was French, that makes you 1/4 French. If your great-grandmother was Swedish, you're 1/8 Swedish.

Heritage can only be added in increments of fractions with bottoms of "powers of two". (2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,etc...)

You can see now that asking the question "can I be 1/3 of something" is the same as asking "is there a power of two that's divisible by three".

There are only three possibilities for a number:
-To be divisible by three.
-To be one more than divisible by three.
-To be two more than divisible by three .

When a number from category 1 is doubled, it stays in category 1.
When a number from category 2 is doubled, it goes to category 3.
When a number from category 3 is doubled, it goes to category 2.

So if you start in either category 2 or 3, you cannot ever get to category 1 by doubling. You'll just bounce back and forth between 2 and 3.

So if we start with the number two (category 3) we can never get to a number that is divisible by three.

Thus: You cannot ever be 1/3 of some heritage.

 

[Arkengate]

Okay, but, my theory is, that lets say its like this (imagine all these in percent)
100+0=50 Then
50+75=62.5 Then
62.5+75=68.75
68.75+50=59.375
59.375+68.7=63.28125
And so on...

I mean, you could get real low, and, like, combine THAT last one with someone who is like .00000019285% for example...

I just cant get rid of the 5, which is where it gets stuck. I think ya'll might be right.. but yea, u can get REALLY friggen close tho

 

[AltF4]

Precisely, you can never get rid of that five.

You're right in saying you could get close, sure. But close isn't what we're talking about.

 

[Lixivium]

Maybe if you had a surrogate Norwegian mother...then you'd be a third Norwegian, socially speaking. But your genes would never be exactly a third Norwegian.

 

[GoldShadow]

In terms of genetics...

it is technically possible to get three sets of chromosomes (two from one parent, one from the other), in which case you'd have 1/3 of your genes from one parent. This is called triploidy. Of course, these individuals either die before birth or shortly after so it doesn't really count.
Also, nationality is not really carried through genes, is it?

Just throwin my biological perspective out there!

 

[Rici]

But what if your parents had a threesome(a devil's threesome that is)? And you are a fraternal(don't know if I called this right, but it's not identical) twin, and if there wouldn't be any method of discovering your DNA or anything else that could prove who your father is. They would have to guess which of the guys is your father, but you could also compromise and declare that both of them are your father. And if all participants of the threesome had different nationalities, you would be 1/3 of each of them!


Mystery solved!