User:Jesseoffy/Wiki Loop Theorem
Wiki Loop Theorem
[edit]The Wiki Loop Theorem is relatively simple. On any given Wikipedia page, there are multiple wiki-links, highlighted in blue, which direct the reader to another page on Wikipedia. If someone were to click on the first link in the first paragraph of any article, and continue doing that with every subsequent article, they would eventually become stuck in the Wiki Loop: a never-ending cycle of articles.
For example, click on the first wiki-link in this article (the word "Theorem"). On that page, the first link is "mathematics", and then quantity, property, philosophy, rational argument, mental faculty (notice, you'll have to scroll to the top of the page to find the next link), intellect, umbrella term, superset (directing you to subset), and finally mathematics again. You'll notice two things: The first is that you are now stuck in a giant loop, never able to leave the loop unless you break the restrictions of the theorem. The second is that not every link is in the loop. Sometimes you'll have to travel through many pre-loop links (such as Theorem in the above example) to get into the loop.
Restrictions
[edit]- Pronunciation and phonetic spelling links should be ignored (though they will send you into a loop too)
- Wiki-links in italicized lines before the article begins should also be ignored, as they might cause the loop to end
- Whether or not you pick the first wiki-link or the second, you must always remain consistent, otherwise there will be no loop
- If a link (such as mental faculty) is part of a larger article, you must find the first wiki-link in the entire article and not the sub-paragraph. Think of the link as directing you to the specific page, not the specific article.
There may be exceptions to this theorem, though none have been discovered if you follow the above rules.
Basis
[edit]This theorem is true assuming that all articles link to at least one other article (besides itself). It can be proved something like this:
- Define a loop as moving between points from a starting point and arriving back at some point that has already been visited.
- Assume that all points are connected to at least one other point
- Assume there are a finite number of points
- To show that it is false, you would be required to always move from any point that you arrive at and show that it did not result in a loop.
- The only alternative to discovering a loop when moving to a point is to arrive at a point that has not been visited yet.
- Eventually, this possibility would be exhausted because you have visited all points, and the next point will have been visited already.
- It is therefore impossible to show that the theorem is false, so the theorem is true.