Best IRS letter ever

[ashling]

[HopeHoops]

1. COOOL!

[Orrex]

2. I kind of expected something like this:

First saw that on DU2 a few years back.

[csziggy]

3. So how much is that in real numbers?

I never made it to advanced mathematics.

[SwissTony]

4. Skip to ***HERE*** if you're not interested in the maths

The infinite series (the last component) can be evaluated as

S = 1/2 + 1/(2^2) + 1/(2^3) + ...

where S is the label form the sum and "^" is the exponentiation operator (2^3 = 2 to the third power = 2*2*2 = 8)

A simpler way to write it avoiding algebraic notation is

S = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 +...

If we temporarily ignore the first term (1/2), we can extract 1/2 from ALL the remaining terms

S = 1/2 *(1/2)*(1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ...)

Now if you look closely, the last term in brackets is just what I called S, so the equation now reads

S = 1/2 + (1/2)*S

Subtract (1/2)S from both sides gives

(1/2) S = 1/2

i.e. S=1

The second term is more complex. It comes from something called de Moivre's theorem, one of the results of which is that

e^(pi*i) = -1

pi is the old familiar 3.14, ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle

e is a good friend of pi and pops up lots in maths. It's roughly equal to 2.718

So that's the value of the last two terms, -1 and +1 respectively.



***HERE***


So the expression evaluates to

T = 0.002 -1 +1 = 0.002

i.e. 2 tenths of one cent. Mr Munroe is justifiably peeved at receiving this bill.

[Bake]

6. The memo line is the best part!

WHAT NOW, BITCHES????



Bake

[SCantiGOP]

5. The IRS is the most reviled agency in our government

My oldest daughter got called in several years ago because she had made some pretty bad mistakes on her tax form. I went with her, and the agent was polite, efficient, and wrote off some charges because she could tell they were errors and not any kind of attempt to avoid paying. I was impressed enough I wrote a letter to her supervisor.