AG. The Eagle
How to do infinitely many things in a few minutes!
Amazingly, there are as many rational numbers as counting numbers!
We also discuss Zeno’s paradoxes and a famous summation problem.
December 17, 2005 · answers, calculusey stuff, infinity, logic, math puzzles, numbers, paradoxes, The Mathcast · Permalink
«« AF. Counting All Rationals· · · AH. QED »»
How to do infinitely many things in a few minutes!
Amazingly, there are as many rational numbers as counting numbers!
We also discuss Zeno’s paradoxes and a famous summation problem.
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Shawn said,
January 21, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Could the eagle problem be solved using integrals?
strauss said,
January 24, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Mebbe, but there are some much simpler ways to go about things! The answer we discuss is probably the simplest…
Shawn said,
January 24, 2012 at 9:15 pm
I only ask the question because I brought up a similar question with my Calculus 1 with Analytic class involving an insect that flies between two approaching trains until they collide.
[spoiler] Wolfram MathWorld has an article that discusses the distance = rate * time solution as well as the infinite summation for the version of the problem they have. I think I remember the definition of area being given as an infinite limit of summation, which could also be expressed with an integral.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TwoTrainsPuzzle.html [/spoiler]