Infinite Hotel: The Easiest Solution
Comments: 5
Mark Pilgrim looks at the old brainteaser of the infinite hotel:
Imagine a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on forever. All the rooms are full. A man comes in and asks the desk manager whether any rooms are available, and the desk manager replies, “All our rooms are full, but I’d be happy to accomodate you.” How does he do it?
He graciously provides a solution, but it involves math. If you’re like me (and I know I am), you’re already looking for an easier way. Here it is:
Ask the guest to sign in and explain they’ll need to pay in advance. Then simply point them to the corridor and tell them that their room is “the last one on the left … the key’s in the door.”
It’ll be ages before they come back to complain.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.12.05 (Fri) • 15:03
Comments
Posted by Kristen 2003.12.05, 15:44
Heheheh. Very clever. And of course, they'll always find their room…eventually.
Posted by Dysfunksional.Monkey 2003.12.05, 21:51
Why doesn't he just give him the key to room 0?
Posted by Matthew Aaron 2003.12.06, 04:07
Or room ∞.
Posted by Derek Mackrell 2003.12.09, 23:31
On the same theme, I love this description of eternity by David Lodge.
Think of a ball of steel as large as the world, and a fly alighting on it once every million years. When the steel ball is rubbed away by the friction, Eternity will not even have begun.
Posted by homerjay 2003.12.14, 10:54
Room 0 doesn't exist. They start at 1.
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