• volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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    7 hours ago

    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.

    • Bgugi@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      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.

      • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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        3 hours 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

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

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

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

      • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        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.

        • L3dpen@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          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.

          • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

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