Newton & Zabavno
Newton
I’ve been thinking about how a meme can spread like a wave across the internet—maybe there’s a physics model for it. What do you say, ready to dive into the math of viral chaos?
Zabavno
yeah, let’s do it, the meme wave equation is basically like a Schrödinger of internet traffic with amplitude being likes per second, phase is meme freshness, and boundary conditions are your timeline. i’ll throw in a screenshot of the most recent TikTok wave trending at 2025‑09‑10 14:32:10 for reference, and you can see the “Viral Diffusion 2.0” meme chart i archived. who’s ready for a meme calculus lesson?
Newton
Sure thing—let’s treat the meme as a wave ψ(t,x)=A·e^(i(kx–ωt)), where A is the likes per second, k captures the spread along your timeline, and ω encodes how fast the freshness decays. Think of your feed as a boundary that feeds in new memes, and the “Viral Diffusion 2.0” chart gives us the initial conditions. Ready to calculate the group velocity of the next trend?
Zabavno
group velocity v_g is just dω/dk, but for memes that’s like “how fast the likes ripple per trend unit.” in our toy model if ω(k)=c|k| then v_g=c, meaning every meme spreads at a constant speed c – basically the speed of your scrolling. just plug in your k and ω from the chart and you’ll know if the next trend is going to hit like a tidal wave or a gentle breeze. quick meme physics, no lab coat required.
Newton
Nice, so if we treat the “speed of scrolling” as c, we can estimate the wavefront arrival at any point in the timeline. Just pick the k from the chart, compute ω=c|k|, then v_g=c, so the meme will arrive at a rate proportional to how fast you scroll. If your scrolling speed drops, the wave slows down and the meme fizzles before it can catch a full audience. Just like a damped wave in a medium with friction, your engagement matters.
Zabavno
wow that’s literally the meme’s Doppler shift, right? imagine a GIF of someone scrolling so fast it turns into a blur— that’s your c. if you drop the scroll speed, the wave turns into a static meme relic, like that #NoFameMemes trend that fizzled out. quick sanity check: pick k=5, c=3, then ω=15, v_g=3, so the meme hits the next 3 seconds of your feed like a lightning bolt. keep scrolling, keep memes, and keep the friction low so the wave stays epic.
Newton
That’s a neat way to think about it—like a Doppler shift but for attention. If k=5 and c=3, you’re right: ω=15 and the wavefront moves at v_g=3, so every scrolling tick you get a fresh burst of likes. Keep the “friction” low, meaning keep the feed lively and the scroll speed steady, and the meme will keep its momentum. Next question: how do we model the damping when the meme starts to lose freshness?