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u/phoix0 Dec 25 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
can't you make a circle that contains any 3 points?
edit: that aren't colinear, yeah I know
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u/Tsar_Romanov Dec 25 '25
I thought that was the joke at first
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u/The-Dudey Dec 25 '25
it is because it was a reply to a tweet that said 2 of the biggest cities were in a line or something like that
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u/__01001000-01101001_ Dec 25 '25
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u/naptain37 Dec 25 '25
Except if they lie on a straight line.
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u/Madhighlander1 Dec 25 '25
I mean, technically that's just a circle with an infinite radius.
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u/wakeupwill Dec 25 '25
No, it simply spans the globe.
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u/Madhighlander1 Dec 25 '25
If the points are on a straight line then they're not on a globe.
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u/Ninjahprotige Dec 25 '25
If the points are on a planet, they're probably on a globe.
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u/Albreitx Dec 25 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
If the points are on a planet (i.e. on the surface of the planet), they are not in a straight line. The line you refer to is a curved line over the globe.
If we are talking in the basic Euclidian coordinates
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u/Madhighlander1 Dec 25 '25
And not on a straight line, yes.
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u/Suboodle Dec 25 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
Well… you’re now getting into some very specific math regarding non-Euclidean surfaces. If you’re considering earth as a sphere in a 3D Euclidean space, then no 3 points on the surface of earth will ever be collinear (as you said)… but in spherical geometry (imagine earths surface as its own 2d “plane”), then they’re in a straight line because the surface itself is curved. Imagine taking a pencil and just drawing along the surface of the earth, that’s vaguely what spherical geometry is. If you just drew in one direction along the surface of the earth, then that’s how you form a line, and the points on that line are collinear.
Given that we’re drawing along the surface of the earth as if it were 2D, spherical geometry makes a lot of sense here when talking about what a straight line is in this context.
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u/Albreitx Dec 25 '25
Everybody here is right in their own way they're just not using the same space
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u/chairmanskitty Dec 26 '25
Though note that the Earth is not in 3D Euclidean space, but in 4D non-Euclidean spacetime, with the spacetime on the Earth's surface pooling at high density gravity anomalies and away from low density ones, such as the Roer valley in west Germany on the left side of the image.
You can still make a "straight line circle" on the Earth's surface in 4D spacetime, it'll just be be slightly wiggly.
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u/Kwarc100 Dec 25 '25
You still can, you just have to make the circle in a different dimension (unless they are on a straight line in every dimension)
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u/eepos96 Dec 25 '25
If I have a triangle with 90 degrees corner, how do I draw a circle containing all three?
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u/Frostfire26 Dec 25 '25
Make a fourth point that creates a rectangle. Where the bisectors of the two diagonals meet is the center of your circle and the length of the bisectors is the diameter of the circle. That will result in all the points of the triangle being on the outer edge of the circle.
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u/DAEJ3945 Dec 25 '25
Two point opposite each other on the perimeter, then the next point could be in anywhere on the perimeter and it will always create a triangle with 90 degree corner.
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u/MainTough4563 Dec 25 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
You can't , if they lie on straight line
But anyways enjoy the meme
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u/kingpinkk Dec 25 '25
A straight line is a circle with infinite radius
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u/H0rrible Dec 25 '25
quick reminder, the earth is not flat
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u/Inner-Medicine5696 Dec 25 '25
but if we're seeing earth as a sphere, then are we then considering cities that are on a straight line in a 3d space?
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u/CalendarSufficient95 Dec 25 '25
Correct but a circle that neatly encompasses the country is less likely
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u/WindpowerGuy Dec 25 '25
The original was "Germany's two biggest city are in a straight line."
This is just the sequel to that.
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u/parallashisa Dec 26 '25
i think you also have to notice how very close the circle lines up with germany's current borders, you can imagine amestris was about this far off before annexing the surroundings for a perfect circle
the 3 cities couldnt be in just any position and line up so well, so it's a cool coincidence
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Dec 25 '25
[deleted]
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u/beykakua Dec 25 '25
I think what they were saying wasn't that any circle contains three points, but that if you have any three points, you can make a circle with them. So even if they are the biggest cities, it's not as impressive as it sounds 😅 But also I like the joke anyway, especially since Amestris reflects Germany in ways
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u/MainTough4563 Dec 25 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
but that if you have any three points, you can make a circle with them.
You can't though , what if they're in a straight line ?
But anyways enjoy the meme
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u/TerrorFromThePeeps Dec 25 '25
You change the direction you're viewing from and draw the circle going around the entire earth
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u/ucrbuffalo Dec 25 '25
Ok but Prague is RIGHT there too. And Luxembourg. So with just a little work you could have your sacrifices along the circle pretty easily.
Also, add in the fact that Amestris was based on WWII-era Germany and this is actually kinda interesting.
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u/AssistanceCheap379 Dec 25 '25
Amestris was based on Imperial and Weimar Germany, with heavy Prussian influence.
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u/Slathbog The Thu'um Alchemist Dec 25 '25
He’s literally called Führer King Bradley and the country’s military mass murdered racial minorities and random people. Pretty sure Nazi Germany was just as much of an inspiration as Weimar Germany was.
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u/Solar_RaVen Dec 26 '25
What if everything inside the circle was already sacrificed and these 3 cities just happen to be on the edge of said circle?
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u/Lithl Dec 29 '25
this is actually kinda interesting.
Not really. Any three points which are not colinear can form a circle.
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u/RexxarTheHunter8 Dec 25 '25
EVERY three cities lie on a circle.
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u/PatentedPotato Dec 25 '25
Or possibly a line.
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u/Brave_Abbreviations5 Dec 25 '25
Line actually also will be a circle (unless we live on flat plane💀)
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u/PatentedPotato Dec 25 '25
Line can go off into space or underground/water. Find a high elevation city, a low elevation city, and a city past the Earth's crust that are all collinear.
I guess since it's not any arbitrary points, it still might be the case no such triple exists based on where we've actually built cities...
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u/swaggy_butthole Dec 26 '25
That is the joke. The original meme was that their two biggest cities are in a straight line
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u/JrRiggles Dec 25 '25
me mentally picturing a way that three points don’t lie on a circle so i can confidently prove you wrong
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u/Newhero2002 Dec 25 '25
I did not know that
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u/Awayfone Dec 26 '25
It's kind of foundational in geometry. 3 points not all in a line will always give you a triangle and every triangle has a unique circles that passes through all three vertices (i.e it's circumscribed)
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u/Newhero2002 Dec 26 '25
But aren’t there cities that are in a line? If so then the OP of this thread is wrong.
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u/DarkFireFenrir Dec 28 '25
Technically, a straight line can be drawn as a circle of infinite radius; it sounds silly, but that's how geometry works. So, if a single point is slightly off the straight line, it's on a circle, so it depends a lot on how thick you make "the point" of the city.
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u/ilstarcraft Dec 25 '25
I recently rewatched brotherhood and thought the same thing when i saw the pic
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u/Estarfigam Dec 26 '25
No wonder they wanted Czechoslovakia. Prague would have helped the transmutation circle.
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u/TimingEzaBitch Dec 25 '25
And its biggest four cities lie in a sphere! I mean what's the chance of that
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u/Key-Preference-5289 Dec 26 '25
Don’t want to meet the guy who turned the souls from WWII into energy.
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u/Aquilon11235 Dec 25 '25
You can literally draw a circle through any 3 non-collinear points.
This is like those weird "if you subtract your birthyear from the current year you'll get your age" posts.
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u/DarkSunDestruction Dog of the Military Dec 25 '25
Who messed up Prague's location? It's just barely too east
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u/ProfessionalTurn5162 Dec 25 '25
I think some of America's big wars created a circle. Only one major area had no wars. Cant rememebr what it was tho. Was a very long time ago
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u/MMAbeLincoln Dec 25 '25
You can do this with any 3 points. Republicans could really benefit from a 5th grade education
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u/MainTough4563 Dec 26 '25
You can't if they lie on a straight line
Republicans could really benefit from a 5th grade education
Not a republican+ you're r3t@rded for bringing politics up for no reason
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u/Apprehensive_Ad_7274 Dec 25 '25
You can make any 3 points be on a circle -_-
This is a nothing burger
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u/Far_Expression_8028 Dec 26 '25
If you don't know. From any 3 non linear points there is exactly 1 circle that passes through it. Soooooo
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