A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are brought into a large room and told to stand against one wall. On the floor of the room is a very precisely drawn grid; on the opposite side of the room are three sacks. The three learn that each sack contains $1 million, and that the object is for each of them to cross the room and grab a sack. The only rule is that they must cross the room in half moves only. This means that first they can walk exactly half the distance from where they stand to the sack. Then, they can again walk half the distance from where they stand to the sack, and so on. The mathematician stands still for a moment, then shakes his head. "Distance = 0 will never be true." And with a sigh of defeat, he turns, and walks out of the room. The physicist stares off into the distance, and he, too, shakes his head. "Time to traverse distance equals infinity." And with that, he sighs in defeat, turns, and walks out of the room, joining the mathematician outside. Soon, they are joined by the engineer, who walks out of the room grinning, and holding all three bags. "Sometimes, close enough is good enough." More or Hess, The Safety Dance, Robert Hess, Microsoft Corporation, February 23, 1998, http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnhess/html/hess022398.asp
:: Bing Friday, March 09, 2007
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