Ahhh, the cardinality of infinities. It's a classic "blow the young comp sci undergraduate mind" thought.
It typically goes like so...
Older guy(senior in cs/math, grad student): "So did you know that there are different sizes of infinity"?
Freshman(thinks he's God's gift to the world): "Bull...you're having me on".
O: "Ha. No. Look, suppose you have the rationals. Now notice that there's sqrt(2), which has been proved to not be rational. cardinality(rationals) + sqrt(2) > cardinality(rationals)".
F: "..."
F: "......"
O: "I don't need recreational drugs, thank you very much. Ta!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:59 pm (UTC)It typically goes like so...
Older guy(senior in cs/math, grad student): "So did you know that there are different sizes of infinity"?
Freshman(thinks he's God's gift to the world): "Bull...you're having me on".
O: "Ha. No. Look, suppose you have the rationals. Now notice that there's sqrt(2), which has been proved to not be rational. cardinality(rationals) + sqrt(2) > cardinality(rationals)".
F: "..."
F: "......"
O: "I don't need recreational drugs, thank you very much. Ta!
F: "...woooaah"