The dichotomy paradox
A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer were asked to answer the following question. A group of boys are lined up on one wall of a dance hall, and an equal number of girls are lined up on the opposite wall. Both groups are then instructed to advance toward each other by one quarter the distance separating them, every ten seconds (i.e., if they are distance d apart at time 0, they are d/2 at t=10, d/4 at t=20, d/8 at t=30, and so on.) When do they meet at the center of the dance hall? The mathematician said they would never actually meet because the series is infinite. The physicist said they would meet when time equals infinity. The engineer said that within one minute they would be close enough for all practical purposes.
Amit Sood
30 Jul 2007 20:45
| 
Comments (2)
| 
Report a problem
Loading…
James Miles
Big LOLZ.
This joke is essentially: “Mathmos are nerds, so are Physbods. Engineers, on the other hand, are blueberry stud muffins”.
31 Jul 2007, 03:44
Ian
But any real physicist would know that within an hour or so, they would be a Plank-length apart and so as close as is quantum mechanically possible (there is no smaller unit of distance). They can never actually touch!!!!
Anyway, the engineer would be too busy working to attend such a dance…
31 Jul 2007, 10:35
Add a comment
You are not allowed to comment on this entry as it has restricted commenting permissions.