Held Prisoner in Hampton Roads

Mathematics and the real world.

The profession of engineering requres a fairly intimate knowledge of mathematics. Unfortunately, in everyday life, even the simplist axioms seem not to apply.

For those of you who don't understand ratios, a ratio is simply a measure of the proportion of one "thing" to another "thing," and is commonly expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. An automotive example is 4.11:1, or four-eleven to one. This describes a rear axle geared such that the engine rotates 4.11 times for each revolution of the rear axle.

Another example is 1:1, or one to one, which roughly describes the ratio of men to women in the world.

Where is all of this leading? It's leading to a 1:1 ratio that should exist, but seemingly does not.

Considering that everyone should have one, we should expect the ratio of assholes to people to approximate 1:1 - excluding, of course, the few unfortunate surgeries required in certain serious diseases.

Theory aside, casual observation seems to indicate that the ratio is much more than 1:1, with there being significantly more assholes than people.

As evidence, I present my 2004 Ford explorer, which was pretty much unblemished until sometime this week. In one trip around the vehicle, I found a huge dent in the rear hatch door, a 4" black mark along the passenger's door, and a large black scuff on the right corner of the front bumper.

So, restating my hypothesis, where:

A = Assholes
P = People

then,

A:P > 1

Q.E.D.