I’ve officially counted to infinity!
$begingroup$
It’s been a while since my last post since school, work, and family have kept me incredibly busy. I have another puzzle though and as always I wish you the best of luck.
Sarah called me today and explained that she had counted to infinity. I shrugged and said it was impossible. She said that since I didn’t believe her, she would do it again, and this time in only ten minutes. I thought it was impossible but she did it right before my eyes!
How did Sarah count to infinity in only ten minutes?
Clarifications
Sarah indeed counted all the way to infinity.
riddle mathematics knowledge story
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
$endgroup$
|
show 1 more comment
$begingroup$
It’s been a while since my last post since school, work, and family have kept me incredibly busy. I have another puzzle though and as always I wish you the best of luck.
Sarah called me today and explained that she had counted to infinity. I shrugged and said it was impossible. She said that since I didn’t believe her, she would do it again, and this time in only ten minutes. I thought it was impossible but she did it right before my eyes!
How did Sarah count to infinity in only ten minutes?
Clarifications
Sarah indeed counted all the way to infinity.
riddle mathematics knowledge story
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
$begingroup$
It’s been a while since my last post since school, work, and family have kept me incredibly busy. I have another puzzle though and as always I wish you the best of luck.
Sarah called me today and explained that she had counted to infinity. I shrugged and said it was impossible. She said that since I didn’t believe her, she would do it again, and this time in only ten minutes. I thought it was impossible but she did it right before my eyes!
How did Sarah count to infinity in only ten minutes?
Clarifications
Sarah indeed counted all the way to infinity.
riddle mathematics knowledge story
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
$endgroup$
It’s been a while since my last post since school, work, and family have kept me incredibly busy. I have another puzzle though and as always I wish you the best of luck.
Sarah called me today and explained that she had counted to infinity. I shrugged and said it was impossible. She said that since I didn’t believe her, she would do it again, and this time in only ten minutes. I thought it was impossible but she did it right before my eyes!
How did Sarah count to infinity in only ten minutes?
Clarifications
Sarah indeed counted all the way to infinity.
riddle mathematics knowledge story
riddle mathematics knowledge story
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
edited 1 hour ago
PerpetualJ
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
asked 2 hours ago
PerpetualJPerpetualJ
4,130547
4,130547
$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago
$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
1
1
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
2
2
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
Perhaps
clever Sarah went the appropriate "I" page in the dictionary and counted word entries until she reached "infinity"
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
This feels underspecified:
clearly Sarah is not counting 1, 2, 3, ... (infinitely many numbers go here), infinity; so she's doing something else; but there are quite a lot of something-elses that she could do, and all of them are kinda cheaty, and the question here is what specific kinda-cheaty thing she did.
Here are a few possibilities. One:
She wrote numbers down on their sides, starting at 1 and proceeding as far as 8. An 8 on its side looks very much like the usual mathematical symbol for infinity.
Two:
She started from, let's say, "infinity minus 100" and counted up. (There are in fact number systems in which something a bit like "infinity minus 100" is an actual number.)
Three:
She counted down from, let's say, "infinity plus 100". (You can do something like that in the surreal numbers, mentioned above, but also in other simpler systems such as the ordinal numbers.)
Four:
She started counting normally, and at some point went "... and so on; infinity." I personally wouldn't (ahahaha) count that as counting to infinity, but then I don't think I'd count anything as counting to infinity other than the thing she obviously didn't do.
Five:
Sarah is able to count arbitrarily fast (maybe she's an archangel or something, not a human) and she said each number twice as quickly as its predecessor; after twice the time it took her to say "one", she had named all the positive integers and then said "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
The definition of infinity in some circles is
the highest conceivable number.
Therefore, all Sarah needs to do is count to
the highest number she knows of, be that a hundred, a thousand, whatever. Because she cannot think of any number higher than that, that is her "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
Perhaps
clever Sarah went the appropriate "I" page in the dictionary and counted word entries until she reached "infinity"
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Perhaps
clever Sarah went the appropriate "I" page in the dictionary and counted word entries until she reached "infinity"
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Perhaps
clever Sarah went the appropriate "I" page in the dictionary and counted word entries until she reached "infinity"
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
$endgroup$
Perhaps
clever Sarah went the appropriate "I" page in the dictionary and counted word entries until she reached "infinity"
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
answered 1 hour ago
SteveVSteveV
6,8932634
6,8932634
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
$begingroup$
If so, she didn't count to infinity, she (at best) counted to "infinity". (Personally I don't think even that is a correct description of what she did.) But I don't expect whatever answer OP has in mind to be much more convincing than this.
$endgroup$
– Gareth McCaughan♦
31 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
This feels underspecified:
clearly Sarah is not counting 1, 2, 3, ... (infinitely many numbers go here), infinity; so she's doing something else; but there are quite a lot of something-elses that she could do, and all of them are kinda cheaty, and the question here is what specific kinda-cheaty thing she did.
Here are a few possibilities. One:
She wrote numbers down on their sides, starting at 1 and proceeding as far as 8. An 8 on its side looks very much like the usual mathematical symbol for infinity.
Two:
She started from, let's say, "infinity minus 100" and counted up. (There are in fact number systems in which something a bit like "infinity minus 100" is an actual number.)
Three:
She counted down from, let's say, "infinity plus 100". (You can do something like that in the surreal numbers, mentioned above, but also in other simpler systems such as the ordinal numbers.)
Four:
She started counting normally, and at some point went "... and so on; infinity." I personally wouldn't (ahahaha) count that as counting to infinity, but then I don't think I'd count anything as counting to infinity other than the thing she obviously didn't do.
Five:
Sarah is able to count arbitrarily fast (maybe she's an archangel or something, not a human) and she said each number twice as quickly as its predecessor; after twice the time it took her to say "one", she had named all the positive integers and then said "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
This feels underspecified:
clearly Sarah is not counting 1, 2, 3, ... (infinitely many numbers go here), infinity; so she's doing something else; but there are quite a lot of something-elses that she could do, and all of them are kinda cheaty, and the question here is what specific kinda-cheaty thing she did.
Here are a few possibilities. One:
She wrote numbers down on their sides, starting at 1 and proceeding as far as 8. An 8 on its side looks very much like the usual mathematical symbol for infinity.
Two:
She started from, let's say, "infinity minus 100" and counted up. (There are in fact number systems in which something a bit like "infinity minus 100" is an actual number.)
Three:
She counted down from, let's say, "infinity plus 100". (You can do something like that in the surreal numbers, mentioned above, but also in other simpler systems such as the ordinal numbers.)
Four:
She started counting normally, and at some point went "... and so on; infinity." I personally wouldn't (ahahaha) count that as counting to infinity, but then I don't think I'd count anything as counting to infinity other than the thing she obviously didn't do.
Five:
Sarah is able to count arbitrarily fast (maybe she's an archangel or something, not a human) and she said each number twice as quickly as its predecessor; after twice the time it took her to say "one", she had named all the positive integers and then said "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
This feels underspecified:
clearly Sarah is not counting 1, 2, 3, ... (infinitely many numbers go here), infinity; so she's doing something else; but there are quite a lot of something-elses that she could do, and all of them are kinda cheaty, and the question here is what specific kinda-cheaty thing she did.
Here are a few possibilities. One:
She wrote numbers down on their sides, starting at 1 and proceeding as far as 8. An 8 on its side looks very much like the usual mathematical symbol for infinity.
Two:
She started from, let's say, "infinity minus 100" and counted up. (There are in fact number systems in which something a bit like "infinity minus 100" is an actual number.)
Three:
She counted down from, let's say, "infinity plus 100". (You can do something like that in the surreal numbers, mentioned above, but also in other simpler systems such as the ordinal numbers.)
Four:
She started counting normally, and at some point went "... and so on; infinity." I personally wouldn't (ahahaha) count that as counting to infinity, but then I don't think I'd count anything as counting to infinity other than the thing she obviously didn't do.
Five:
Sarah is able to count arbitrarily fast (maybe she's an archangel or something, not a human) and she said each number twice as quickly as its predecessor; after twice the time it took her to say "one", she had named all the positive integers and then said "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
$endgroup$
This feels underspecified:
clearly Sarah is not counting 1, 2, 3, ... (infinitely many numbers go here), infinity; so she's doing something else; but there are quite a lot of something-elses that she could do, and all of them are kinda cheaty, and the question here is what specific kinda-cheaty thing she did.
Here are a few possibilities. One:
She wrote numbers down on their sides, starting at 1 and proceeding as far as 8. An 8 on its side looks very much like the usual mathematical symbol for infinity.
Two:
She started from, let's say, "infinity minus 100" and counted up. (There are in fact number systems in which something a bit like "infinity minus 100" is an actual number.)
Three:
She counted down from, let's say, "infinity plus 100". (You can do something like that in the surreal numbers, mentioned above, but also in other simpler systems such as the ordinal numbers.)
Four:
She started counting normally, and at some point went "... and so on; infinity." I personally wouldn't (ahahaha) count that as counting to infinity, but then I don't think I'd count anything as counting to infinity other than the thing she obviously didn't do.
Five:
Sarah is able to count arbitrarily fast (maybe she's an archangel or something, not a human) and she said each number twice as quickly as its predecessor; after twice the time it took her to say "one", she had named all the positive integers and then said "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
answered 1 hour ago
Gareth McCaughan♦Gareth McCaughan
68.9k3174270
68.9k3174270
add a comment |
add a comment |
$begingroup$
The definition of infinity in some circles is
the highest conceivable number.
Therefore, all Sarah needs to do is count to
the highest number she knows of, be that a hundred, a thousand, whatever. Because she cannot think of any number higher than that, that is her "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
The definition of infinity in some circles is
the highest conceivable number.
Therefore, all Sarah needs to do is count to
the highest number she knows of, be that a hundred, a thousand, whatever. Because she cannot think of any number higher than that, that is her "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
The definition of infinity in some circles is
the highest conceivable number.
Therefore, all Sarah needs to do is count to
the highest number she knows of, be that a hundred, a thousand, whatever. Because she cannot think of any number higher than that, that is her "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
$endgroup$
The definition of infinity in some circles is
the highest conceivable number.
Therefore, all Sarah needs to do is count to
the highest number she knows of, be that a hundred, a thousand, whatever. Because she cannot think of any number higher than that, that is her "infinity".
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
answered 1 hour ago
BewildererBewilderer
2745
2745
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
$begingroup$
Finitism much (it seems that Sarah is accepting the highest number she can count to as infinity)?
$endgroup$
– MilkyWay90
14 mins ago
add a comment |
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$begingroup$
Welcome back! :)
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
2 hours ago
$begingroup$
Oh, and just so there is no confusion here, does Sarah mean that she counts to infinity as opposed to counting towards infinity? There is a difference, and I feel like this is an important, but subtle, detail to address.
$endgroup$
– Mr Pie
1 hour ago
1
$begingroup$
@MrPie All the way to infinity!
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
1 hour ago
2
$begingroup$
This question feels a bit too broad. Are you sure there's one demonstrably correct answer to this one?
$endgroup$
– PiIsNot3
1 hour ago
$begingroup$
@PiIsNot3 I’m pretty sure there is one way to count to the end of an infinite set in a finite time span.
$endgroup$
– PerpetualJ
38 mins ago