stratego
Trying to be good.
Racially you can't be 1/3th something right?
You can't be 1/3 something right?
- Thread starter stratego
- Start date
Hmmm... you could be 3/8ths, or 5/16ths, or 11/32nds, but no, not mathematically 1/3.
the mormegil
Emperor
I don't think so...
...not unless cloning is involved
...maybe
...not unless cloning is involved
...maybe
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
Sounds like a tall order ...
If we for simplicities sake start out with platonically pure races, you're amount of descendance from any one is m*2^-n, where m and n are a non-negative integers so that m<2^n and n is also allowed to be +infinity (allowing for descending from that race not at all).
m*2^-n=1/3 doesn't have any integer solutions, so you technically can't. You might come arbitratrily close, tho, if sufficiently many generations removes you from the pure races.
If we for simplicities sake start out with platonically pure races, you're amount of descendance from any one is m*2^-n, where m and n are a non-negative integers so that m<2^n and n is also allowed to be +infinity (allowing for descending from that race not at all).
m*2^-n=1/3 doesn't have any integer solutions, so you technically can't. You might come arbitratrily close, tho, if sufficiently many generations removes you from the pure races.
addiv
Hero of our time
You'll have to figure out your ancestry a long way back then. But what is a pure race and what not is only relative. It depends on how far you go back.
thestonesfan
A Client of Ron Kuby
I'd say you could, but it would involve an act best left unmentioned.
stratego
Trying to be good.
thestonesfan we human don't always do whats best for us, so how about you mention what act it would involve. Please.
1/3 "of a race"?
Not by deriving from simple genealogy. Fractions don't work that way.
Genetically, you could say that however for if we wish to isolate certain genes as "racial" we'd find this very small set of racially characteristic genes not passed to offspring as a neat package but randomly and incompletely. My son's foot, for example, has his mother's racially characteristic width, but his toes like his father arranged all in line. We might have a second child with the traits reversed, or apparently with "his mother's" feet, or vice versa. Then who knows what genes these kids carry recessively? The allotment of genes in any individual is highly variable and mostly unremarkable if not unknowable.
I suppose, since racial characteristics are based on superficial genes, we could examine a person's body and check off only racial characteristics, then tally up and link the person statistically to a group, or locate that person between groups. We do that intuitively anyway.
I tend to look more for traits of sensitivity and intelligence, and classify people by such. And of course I look for sexual attributes.
Not by deriving from simple genealogy. Fractions don't work that way.
Genetically, you could say that however for if we wish to isolate certain genes as "racial" we'd find this very small set of racially characteristic genes not passed to offspring as a neat package but randomly and incompletely. My son's foot, for example, has his mother's racially characteristic width, but his toes like his father arranged all in line. We might have a second child with the traits reversed, or apparently with "his mother's" feet, or vice versa. Then who knows what genes these kids carry recessively? The allotment of genes in any individual is highly variable and mostly unremarkable if not unknowable.
I suppose, since racial characteristics are based on superficial genes, we could examine a person's body and check off only racial characteristics, then tally up and link the person statistically to a group, or locate that person between groups. We do that intuitively anyway.
I tend to look more for traits of sensitivity and intelligence, and classify people by such. And of course I look for sexual attributes.
barron of ideas
Barron
Postulate humans have two parents and 4 grandparents, as each parent has a mother and a father, it would be difficult to set up a situation where you have one third of an ethnicity.
However if one of the grandparents is of unknown ethnicity, perhaps one grandmother was impregnated by artificial insemination, you mght only know the ethnicity of only 3 of your grandparents. At that point, based on what is known, you could be 1/3rd a particular ethnicity inherited from only one grandparent.
You may want to consider the Lincoln story, how many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? Lincoln is reported to have said, four, calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.
So even if you only know 3 grandparents, you only have 25% of your ethnicity from each. But that is arithmetical logic. On a probablistic, quantum theoretical basis like schodingers cat you don't know the 4th enthnicity, so of the 3 you know, you are one third of each.
Do you feel better now?
However if one of the grandparents is of unknown ethnicity, perhaps one grandmother was impregnated by artificial insemination, you mght only know the ethnicity of only 3 of your grandparents. At that point, based on what is known, you could be 1/3rd a particular ethnicity inherited from only one grandparent.
You may want to consider the Lincoln story, how many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? Lincoln is reported to have said, four, calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.
So even if you only know 3 grandparents, you only have 25% of your ethnicity from each. But that is arithmetical logic. On a probablistic, quantum theoretical basis like schodingers cat you don't know the 4th enthnicity, so of the 3 you know, you are one third of each.
Do you feel better now?
stratego
Trying to be good.
So barron, you are saying that if I accelerate myself to the speed of light then observe my subatomic energy levels through a non accelerating frame of reference I can be 1/3 white?
Actually barron, I have no idea what you're talking about with this quantum theoretical basis.wlievens
Warlord
Eiteher you're a mathematician, or you need a girlfriend :-D
EdwardTking
Deity
You have 2 parents 4 grandparents 8 great grandparents etc,
the number keeps going up ....16, 32 64, 128, 256
Now if 85 are Irish and 171 are Dutch; you are very nearly 1/3 Irish and 2/3 Dutch.
the number keeps going up ....16, 32 64, 128, 256
Now if 85 are Irish and 171 are Dutch; you are very nearly 1/3 Irish and 2/3 Dutch.
Håkan Eriksson
Commander of the Swedes.
If you have a egg from one mother, the sperm from one father and then put it inside a surrogate mother.
Then you could claim to be 1/3 of something.
Then you could claim to be 1/3 of something.
That's a good point Håkan Eriksson. It could just depend on staking claims. If three people agree to each take 1/3 responsibility for a child, then it's settled.
But the question was about race I think. Race just isn't very relevant in genetics. It's like whether you've got a lemon or a lime wedge on your glass of sangria, or, the way things are going, the shape of the ice-cubes.
But the question was about race I think. Race just isn't very relevant in genetics. It's like whether you've got a lemon or a lime wedge on your glass of sangria, or, the way things are going, the shape of the ice-cubes.
bobgote
Trousers
not for a human, we have base 2 genetics
but if you were some other creature...or an experiment gone wrong...who knows?
but if you were some other creature...or an experiment gone wrong...who knows?
Vancouver 2010
Getting Paid to Code
Technically, you could come close to having a 1/3rd ethnicity (using normal genealogy), as long as you knew the ethnicity of a sufficient number of generations.
However, you'd need data for a minimum of 30 generations to get reasonably accurate data.
However, you'd need data for a minimum of 30 generations to get reasonably accurate data.
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
I'm no mathematician, so I guess I'm in the later camp. Got any spare?
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
Mathematics forget something. There's no race. We are all mixes.
Tell me in which "race" are classified gingers, arabs, inuits, pakistanese, indians or aborigenes. That story of race is totally subjective. There's no objective genetical reality behind it.
Tell me in which "race" are classified gingers, arabs, inuits, pakistanese, indians or aborigenes. That story of race is totally subjective. There's no objective genetical reality behind it.
