this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I remember reading he was one third German and sometimes I cannot sleep at night because I am trying to figure out the math. This has been like 15 years ago and it still bugs me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Sprinkle in a little incest and we are good to go.

I also have no idea, I thought it was all halves of halves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can get some odd fractions by two parents having similar lineages. Like, if your mother is Irish, and your great-grandmother on your father's side is Irish, you would be five-eighths Irish. I'm having trouble finding a combination that gives you thirds, though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Doesn’t exist, 3 is prime. No combination of 2^-n will get you a 3 in the denominator.

…unless somewhere along the tree there’s a person who shows up twice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gotcha. Three-eighths is roughly one-third, so I guess that? One-quarter German on one side, one-eighth on the other?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

That rounding error would be small enough that most people would consider it less bad than incest, maybe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

It is a rounding and reduction of genetic markers.

21/64 Germanic markers equals 1/3 German in speech because everybody hates the twenty-one sixty-fourths German guy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you really want to get into the weeds, you get one half of your chromosomes from your mother, and one half from your father (most of the time, oh boy!), which should start the train rolling on the 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16.... BUT there is a chance for crossover events, where the chromosomes can, well, cross over each other and exchange parts of themselves. So your dad should be passing on 1/4 of your genes from his mother, and 1/4 of your genes from his father (and even that isn't 100% true, the only certain one would be if you're a male, you're going to get your grandfather's Y gene, you could get 23 of your grandmother's chromosomes and none from your grandfather), but he might pass on 52/106 of your grandmother's genes (not chromosomes, to those of you counting along at home... and I'm not saying you only have 106 genes, good lord) to you, and 54/106 of your grandfather's genes.

And that's just getting started on genetic funkiness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it makes you feel better, "one third" is realistically a reduced precision approximation of something like 23/64 (from a genealogical perspective) or near 33% of certain markers on a genetic panel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I mean I guess that's what they referred to, some approximation, but it still breaks my brain every time I think about it

Just like I once watched a video titled something like "this boy did the unthinkable" and then he did something very thinkable (he just ate someone's face) and I am still mad about that