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More from The kinky turtle
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What if, instead of creating her own friendship magic to solve the problem of Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spell, Twilight took the easy way out and just kept casting it until the ponies' cutie marks were on the right way round again? Well I guess Princess Celestia would be all like "TWILIGHT I AM DISAPPOINT". 'Cause that's kinda the magic equivalent of "solving" a Rubik's Cube by taking it apart with a prybar and reassembling it.
(It's also possible that the spell mixes the Elements of Harmony randomly, and there's actually a 119-to-1 chance against the spell actually putting them all the right way round at any time, but I ignored that because that would make the cartoon waaaaaaay too long!)
(It's also possible that the spell mixes the Elements of Harmony randomly, and there's actually a 119-to-1 chance against the spell actually putting them all the right way round at any time, but I ignored that because that would make the cartoon waaaaaaay too long!)
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...What are you talking about? "Brute-force" may not be an opposite for "mathematical," but somepony who is seriously looking at the mathematics of the situation would tend to be doing so to cut back on the brute-force work.
And "every possible twist" on a Rubik's Cube? That's either 18 twists before stopping or ~779 quintillion twists. The latter requires visiting every possible state... but if you can *reach* every possible state, surely you'd pick the solved state.
Finally, the left-hand rule is methodical, and in certain situations is guaranteed to work. It's a solving algorithm. In short, you switched back and forth a few times in your comment.
And "every possible twist" on a Rubik's Cube? That's either 18 twists before stopping or ~779 quintillion twists. The latter requires visiting every possible state... but if you can *reach* every possible state, surely you'd pick the solved state.
Finally, the left-hand rule is methodical, and in certain situations is guaranteed to work. It's a solving algorithm. In short, you switched back and forth a few times in your comment.
Heh. And she still might have gotten to be Princess, since she still had to finish the spell. (The spell, as far as I can figure out, is supposed to trigger the Elements of Harmony. It's just that Star Swirl's version fires them like the cylinders of an engine, and they're supposed to fire simultaneously.)
Because the computer can run through 100+ possible solutions in a second or two with no consequences for Ponyville in the meantime. For Twilight to do it, it would take hours (and possibly more stamina than she has), and Ponyville would end up looking like Discord got at it. Not to mention the spell RANDOMIZES her friends' cutie marks, and it's entirely possible there's no mechanism to keep a particular combination from repeating itself - in which case setting everything right could potentially take days or even weeks, because the odds of the spell coming out right on any given cast is 1 in 120.
What if we assume it's possible to isolate some of the elements from the others, so that the scrambling spell can be directed only at the incorrect ones? Assuming the scrambling is indeed random, it would still only necessary to cast the spell until one of the elements is returned to normal; that one can then be placed in a "lead box" (either metaphorical or literal, depending on what works) leaving only the remaining four to unscramble, and so on. Without bothering to do the math, I'd roughly estimate a full solution in 10-15 spells.
We're ignoring, of course, any possible side-effects of having one's mind (and/or identity and/or destiny) messed with 10-15 times in quick succession. It's quite probable that this sort of thing could take a toll on a pony!
(Plus, we're still missing the point in the first place!)
We're ignoring, of course, any possible side-effects of having one's mind (and/or identity and/or destiny) messed with 10-15 times in quick succession. It's quite probable that this sort of thing could take a toll on a pony!
(Plus, we're still missing the point in the first place!)
There's something that kind of bugs me about this episode and those are the scenes with Pinkie Pie at the farm.
Pinkie Pie is the daughter of a rock farmer, her family might not have had animals at their farm but the daughter of a rock farmer should not have a problem with a busted water Shute or any other maintenance work around the farm.
But that is probably just me.
Pinkie Pie is the daughter of a rock farmer, her family might not have had animals at their farm but the daughter of a rock farmer should not have a problem with a busted water Shute or any other maintenance work around the farm.
But that is probably just me.
Petriculture and agriculture, while probably grouped similarly in the Equestrian tax code, are probably dissimilar enough that techniques that Pinkie would've learned as a filly would not apply. And that's not considering advances in the field--she's been out of the industry for a few years, presumably.
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