express– A maths expert has revealed that the Mean Girls equation that led to Lindsay Lohan’s iconic “the limit does not exist” answer was in fact wrong and would have changed the ending.
The meme-worthy moment saw Lohan’s Cady Heron taking part in the High School Mathletes Championship finals with one last question to decide which team wins.
In a tense moment, Cady is chosen to compete against character Caroline Krafft who is representing another school.
In a sudden death round, the two are asked to find the limit of the below equation:
Cady’s opponent Caroline hits back with a quick answer of -1 which is then deemed incorrect by the judge.
The pressure then falls on Cady to present the correct answer in order for her school to win the championship.
Cady focuses hard and remembers: “If the limit never approaches anything, the limit does not exist” under her breath. She looks towards the judge and declares with confidence: “The limit does not exist!”
The answer was correct and Cady’s team were declared mathlete champions.
The catchphrase has also become an internet meme and is still doing the rounds 17-years after the film was released.
However, Ray Douse, director at Maths-Whizz, a virtual maths tutoring service, says that the infamous equation was wrong.
He told the Mirror: “The film was technically wrong to ask what was the limit of the equation because it wasn’t an equation on the screen, it was an expression.
“Cady’s answer was correct, however, because whether x approaches 0 from a positive or a negative number, the expression resolves into either positive or negative infinity, and infinity has no limits.”