ES Recruitment Drive
Original Post
Riddles & Paradoxes
So, this is a thread for you to post paradoxical, mind-blowing questions about anything. Keeping in mind that you must stay on-topic, limiting your posts to either make your own paradox or to deal with a proposed one.

To give it a start, I'll give you one of mine:

If I told you to walk to a certain point (lets say its 100 meters away), in a straight line, provided that, after each and every step you take, your speed is halved, would you ever reach the point I asked you to reach?





The ''answer'' for this might imply that some things we believed to be coherent are actually not. But that might just be me.
yes you would eventually reach it.

You have a jar. there is one bug in the jar. every minute the number of bugs in the jar doubles. at 30 minutes the jar is full. At how many minutes is the jar half full?
<~Fear> fuck, Pv2Caribou is that you?
<~Fear> you look like you suplex fucking rhinos
29 minutes.

That took me some time to figure out.
Last edited by Sidvicious; Jun 15, 2013 at 03:05 PM.
You don't reach the point if you're allowed a finite time.
Last edited by Fear; Jun 16, 2013 at 06:02 AM.
thats right fear. or if he said half the distance. but he said half the speed, so eventually he would reach it.
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and sid thats the point lol. everyone says 15.
Last edited by Pv2Caribou; Jun 16, 2013 at 07:47 AM. Reason: <24 hour edit/bump
<~Fear> fuck, Pv2Caribou is that you?
<~Fear> you look like you suplex fucking rhinos
ok so lets say you are 3 steps away from something. first step you go 4 mph. second step you are going 2 mph. 3rd step you go 1 mph. you will eventually reach the end. halving speed wont stop you from getting there.
<~Fear> fuck, Pv2Caribou is that you?
<~Fear> you look like you suplex fucking rhinos
Originally Posted by ME,LIKE FIVE MINUTES AGO
You can't really answer the question with a general statement, you would have to know how long each step is, and how far away the goal is. AKA. if you have a 1m step and the goal is 1.5 meters away then you will reach it in two steps.

using your example then assuming a 1m step you would need approximately loads of steps, this approximation is based off the fact that 300,000,000 steps would get you around 20.1 meters

seriesSum(1/n, n, 1, 300000000) is the formula used to do the stuff, change the things to make it different just leave the 1 alone, not the 1/n, the one, the one after the one over n. yes, that one.

DISREGARD THE ABOVE

PV2 is right, the solution has no limit see this
Last edited by Zycosi; Jun 16, 2013 at 02:54 PM.
Originally Posted by PV2Caribou View Post
everyone says 15.

please tell me you're joking.
Originally Posted by Facade View Post
please tell me you're joking.

i wish i was. they hear 30, they hear half, ITS 15!!!!
<~Fear> fuck, Pv2Caribou is that you?
<~Fear> you look like you suplex fucking rhinos