Flight delayed after passenger becomes suspicious after noticing a mysterious equation - Polidicks

[IMG]http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/16C13/production/_89630239_maths.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1432719182/images.jpeg[/IMG] [URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36240523?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook"]BBC News[/URL] [quote] An Italian economist says his flight was delayed after a fellow passenger saw him working on a differential equation and alerted the cabin crew. Guido Menzio was taken off and questioned by agents who did not identify themselves, after the woman next to him said she felt ill. He showed them what he had been writing and the flight eventually took off - more than two hours late. Mr Menzio [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/"]told the Washington Post[/URL] that the pilot seemed embarrassed. "The lady just looked at me, looked at my writing of mysterious formulae, and concluded I was up to no good. "Because of that an entire flight was delayed." [/quote]

[QUOTE]Guido Menzio was taken off and questioned by agents who did not identify themselves, after the woman next to him said she felt ill. [/QUOTE] to be fair, complex math gives me a headache as well

What the hell was her reasoning behind this? What possible harm could you cause from writing something?

She didn't know it was maths.

Probably assumed it was some hacker code meant to take the plane down. People are dumb.

[i]is he calculating a bomb[/i]

Lady was probably too suspicious and/or paranoiac for her own good and mistook, through ignorance of course, the good professor's differential math for some kind of secret code.

Low education + high paranoia = conspiracy theorists Get ready for another decade or three of this shit.

I'd love to know what this woman's thought process was.

I'd call this unbelievable but I'm not at all surprised

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50281091]Low education + high paranoia = conspiracy theorists Get ready for another decade or three of this shit.[/QUOTE] I saw a post on hacker news just like this, except they're blaming this on "Trumps America"

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;50281108]This woman was probably on drugs. There's no fucking way you can get paranoid about a mathematical equation while you're in your right mind. Right? Right? ...Right? :disappoint:[/QUOTE] Or we'll go with occam's razor on this one and just say that maybe she never took high school math

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;50281115]Or we'll go with occam's razor on this one and just say that maybe she never took high school math[/QUOTE] I like to think most people know what higher level math looks like, even if they don't understand it. I mean, when I was five I could see an "advanced" equation and know it was math but not know what it meant. [editline].[/editline] From [URL="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/07/professors-airplane-math-leads-flight-delay/84084914/"]USA Today:[/URL] [QUOTE]Guido Menzio, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, was working on a differential equation while waiting for the Syracuse-bound plane to take off from Philadelphia, the Washington Post reported. He had to present the findings of a working paper at Queen's University. But a passenger somehow mistook the equation for Arabic or some sort of Islamic code for a terrorist attack. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=chrishind10;50281113]I saw a post on hacker news just like this, except they're blaming this on "Trumps America"[/QUOTE] The hard slant to the extreme right and the defunding of education been happening since the 80s, so unless that poster's referring to Trump's America as of when Trump looked like this, [t]http://i.imgur.com/jVEztTV.png[/t] they're part of the problem that enables Trump to exist as the RNC presidential candidate in 2016 I can't believe I typed those words but this is the world we live in It's not something that falls on political lines, it's across the full spectrum of the low-education post-9/11 demographic, and even if it wasn't intentional Machiavelli couldn't have written it better.

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;50281134]I like to think most people know what higher level math looks like, even if they don't understand it. I mean, when I was five I could see e=mc^2 and know it was math but not know what it meant. [editline].[/editline] From [url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/07/professors-airplane-math-leads-flight-delay/84084914/]USA Today:[/url][/QUOTE] In fairness e=mc^2 is well enough known, and much simpler to understand in general than differential equations without a minimum basic grounding in the same

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;50281152]In fairness e=mc^2 is well enough known, and much simpler to understand in general than differential equations without a minimum basic grounding in the same[/QUOTE] Fair enough. Maybe I'm just elitist, I dunno. I still remain baffled at this.

Well when you add extreme paranoia and low education together the result is a very stupid individual.

[QUOTE=Handsome Matt;50281063]how is this suspicious at all, what the fuck was going through this woman's head [editline]???[/editline] did she think it was arabic or something[/QUOTE] "I solved this odd equation... It says "bomb".... Hey, waaait a minute..."

The fact that a flight was delayed because of this blows my mind, how did nobody look at that and go "Yep that's complex math and the lady's a paranoid idiot"

Her mind was so blown by the presence of math that she had to alert the authorities of explosive activity.

[QUOTE=The Duke;50281290]Her mind was so blown by the presence of math that she had to alert the authorities of explosive activity.[/QUOTE] It's a real world version of a logic bomb.

[QUOTE=greasemunky;50281222]The fact that a flight was delayed because of this blows my mind, how did nobody look at that and go "Yep that's complex math and the lady's a paranoid idiot"[/QUOTE] They have to treat every report as if it were a real threat, just in case someone blows off an actual threat that thought wasn't.

[QUOTE=Nerts;50281361]They have to treat every report as if it were a real threat, just in case someone blows off an actual threat that thought wasn't.[/QUOTE] Exactly. Do you really want to be the one guy in history who went "nah, let's be adults here, she's crazy" and then 9/11 2: Exchanging Nukes with ISIS happens.

Welp, looks like the terrorists won this round boys.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50281399]Exactly. Do you really want to be the one guy in history who went "nah, let's be adults here, she's crazy" and then 9/11 2: Exchanging Nukes with ISIS happens.[/QUOTE] Ya we should just stop our lives when one person feels like acting an idiot

[QUOTE=JerryK;50281732]Ya we should just stop our lives when one person feels like acting an idiot[/QUOTE] Stopping our lives for a second is better then having our lives stopped forever.

[QUOTE=Kyle902;50281858]Stopping our lives for a second is better then having our lives stopped forever.[/QUOTE] i'd rather be dead than live in fear

[QUOTE=JerryK;50281732]Ya we should just stop our lives when one person feels like acting an idiot[/QUOTE] Petition the FAA to give pilots authority to make that decision, because I'm pretty damn sure a pilot does not have the authority to decide that a reported terrorist threat is just a jumpy woman, not if the plane's still on the ground. I think that a pilot or air marshall should be able to ask to see the supposed "code" and hand the guy's notebook back and go, "that's just math, she's an idiot", and that is the way the report's processed efficiently and everyone gets the fuck on with their job. Real, credible threats get handled with security response and such instead, obvs. If that's your argument, I agree. Petition the FAA to invest that authority in someone crewing the plane. In the current climate of fear, plus the FAA's [I]baseline[/I] turboneurotic safety paranoia, good luck, but it's gotta start somewhere.

[QUOTE=Judas;50281870]i'd rather be dead than live in fear[/QUOTE] I'm not living in fear but there needs to be a balance of "Hey this guy is sketchy as fuck get security to check him out." and "This guy is brown and writing funny scribbles on a paper, I feel threatened!"

That was an enjoyable article to read. I like the author's writing style. Still ridiculous that the woman couldn't the the difference between differential equations, and an Asian language though.